284 
BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 
of the counties wherein the licenses were respectively issued. Prior to 1874-75 all 
of the tonging fees, amounting to $8 L, 266.25, were paid into the State treasury, and 
the receipts from this branch of the fishery in 1892-93, under the new license system, 
amounted to $2,672.70, making a total of $83,938.95 that has been paid into the treas- 
ury of the State out of the $319,175.65 revenue from tonging licenses. 
Of the revenue from scraping licenses, nothing was paid into the State treasury 
prior to 1892-93 except the revenue in Dorchester County in 1870-71 and 1871-72, 
which amounted to $3,008. In 1892 it was required that 10 per cent of the revenue 
from scraping licenses, after deducting 5 per cent for collection, should be paid into 
the State treasury. The revenue from the latter source in 1892-93 was $1,266.63, 
making a total of $4,274.63 received into the State treasury out of a total of $210,314.16 
received in fees from this branch of the fishery. These figures form the basis of the 
following table: 
Total revenue received from oyster licenses in Maryland. 
Depository. 
Tonging. 
Dredging. 
Scraping. 
Total. 
State treasury 
County treasuries 
$83, 938. 95 
235, 236. 70 
$1, 252, 030. 80 
$4, 274. 63 
206, 039. 53 
$1, 340 244. 38 
441,276. 23 
Total 
319, 175. 65 
1, 252, 030. 80 
210, 314. 16 
1, 781, 520. 61 
In addition to the foregoing items the State treasury has received since 1884 one- 
tenth of a cent for every bushel of oysters used at the steaming-houses, this amounting 
to $22,461.20 to the present date; also since 1865 from oyster measurers, fines, and other 
sources, $89,807.25; and the counties have collected about $55,000 from the imposing 
of oyster fines, etc. This makes a grand total of $1,948,789.04 collected from all 
branches of the oyster industry since the establishment of the license system. Of 
this revenue, $1,452,512.83 has been paid into the State treasury to the credit of the 
“ oyster fund,” and “packers’ fund,” and $496,276.23 has been received into the treas- 
uries of the tide water counties. 
The revenue paid into the county treasuries has been devoted mostly to public- 
school purposes, a very small portion being used for enforcing the oyster regulations 
in certain counties, and in Worcester and Somerset counties in the planting of oyster 
shells for the extension and improvement of the oyster reefs. In 1892-93 the clerks 
of the circuit courts received $5,264.18 for issuing the tonging and scraping licenses, 
but prior to that season they received nothing. 
The “oyster fund” of the State treasury has been used chiefly in equipping and 
maintaining the fishery force, about $1,200,000 having been devoted to that purpose 
up to the close of the fiscal year 1893. Numerous other items have assisted iu dimin- 
ishing this fund, among which may be mentioned the refunding of transportation license 
fees collected in 1884 and 1885, amounting to $27,644.15; the expenditure of $4,892.35 
in an experiment in planting oyster shells; the expenses of various State commissions 
or legislative committees appointed to investigate certain features of the industry; 
painting numbers for the dredging vessels ; court procedures, etc. 
