256 
BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 
in extent because of the increasing mortality each year among the oysters planted. 
This may to some extent have been due to their overcrowded condition and a lack of 
sufficient food, but more likely to the malaerated condition of the water and the large 
amount of vegetable and mineral sediment in the bay. 
The industry is still prosperous and conducted with as much energy, although 
probably not with so much care, as in any of the Northern States. The seed oysters are 
obtained from the natural reefs in this county, the ocean shore of the counties of 
Accomac and N orthampton, V irginia, and the tributaries of the Chesapeake. The cost 
delivered on the grounds ranges from 15 to 45 cents per bushel, according to the qual- 
ity and the locality whence obtained. About 250 to 550 bushels are planted to the acre, 
and they are permitted to remain from one to three years. While each person is 
authorized to preempt only 5 acres of ground, yet a number of the members of a 
family or of a community unite and obtain a sufficient area for engaging in the 
industry on a profitable scale. The annual product of that part of the bay situated in 
Maryland has averaged during the last six years about 135,000 bushels annually, at 90 
cents per bushel clear. 
The extent of the product varies much from season to season, and in 1887-88 and 
1889-90 was more than twice the average, the product during each of the two seasons 
named being about 200,000 bushels at $1 per bushel. In 1891-92 the yield was 86,000 
bushels, and in 1892-93 it was 105,600 bushels. These oysters usually go upon the 
markets as “ Chincoteagues ” or “ Parker Bays.” 
There exists a regulation local to Worcester County in respect to the preemption 
of planting areas that is, I believe, without a parallel in any part of the world. This 
regulation is in substance as follows : If through ignorance or mistake the locator of 
a planting lot should preempt a natural oyster-reef, the county commissioners are 
required, upon sworn information thereof being presented to them, to appoint three 
disinterested men to go with the locator, examine the lot, and report under oath rela- 
tive to the same. If in the preempted area a reef more than 20 feet square in any 
one place be found they shall value the same and the locator shall pay the valuation 
to the county and also the expenses of the examining committee, the latter not to 
exceed $10; but if no reef more than 20 feet square be found the expenses of the 
committee shall be paid by the informer. 
The utmost harmony, however, prevails among the oystermen of that region, and 
their operations are guided as much by public sentiment as by the statutes ; hence 
no advantage has been taken of the opportunity here presented by collusion with one 
another for obtaining the natural reefs of that county. 
In the Chesapeake region of Maryland, bedding is practiced more extensively in 
the Patuxent River than elsewhere. The “plants” are obtained from the public reefs 
in that river and are permitted to remain on the private areas for a few weeks or 
months, being deposited during a dull season and taken up when the oyster market is 
strong. Occasionally, however, they may remain oil the private grounds for a year or 
more. The object in bedding is not so much to increase the size or condition of the 
oysters as to obtain a better market; and the expressions “ storing” and “dumping,” 
sometimes heard in the Chesapeake, express better than “bedding” the operations in 
this river. The quantity removed from these areas may approximate 100,000 bushels 
annually, but this is a product of the public reefs rather than of the planting lots. 
While the preemption of oyster-planting grounds in the Tangier and Pocomoke 
