THE OYSTER INDUSTRY OF MARYLAND. 
289 
eries. The growth of the latter during the last twenty years has been marvelous. At 
present scarcely one-half of the world’s product of oysters is marketed directly from 
the public reefs, the quantity going upon the food market from Maryland being greater 
than that from all the remaining public beds of the world combined. Witnessing the 
continued depletion of their public reefs in spite of their protective laws, States and 
countries have grown weary of their task of attempting to preserve them and have 
encouraged the investment of private enterprise on barren grounds, making the reg- 
ulations of the common fishery subsidiary thereto.* In Maryland, however, there 
are so many thousands of persons dependent on the common fishery, and its pros- 
perity is so important a factor in the wealth of the State, that it has received every 
safeguard that presented a possibility of benefit, so far as the leaders in State legis- 
lation could conceive and carry out. And the regulations and sentiment that now 
surround the industry in Maryland are such that if ever the common oyster fishery 
on the public reefs becomes a thing of the past in America, I feel confident that its 
last battle ground will be along the shores of the Chesapeake. 
The great trouble with the present methods and regulations is not with the close 
seasons or with the implements employed, but, as in other States, the oystermen take 
no individual interest in the preservation and development of the reefs on which they 
work, their sole object being to obtain at the moment all the oysters possible, without 
reference to the future supply. Individual interests clash with the public good. 
While it is the public or general interest of all that each oysterman should refrain 
from taking, the small and poor oysters, take few during bad markets, and give 
attention to removing enemies and leaving the reefs in the best condition for further 
reproduction and growth, it is his individual but temporary interest to take all he 
can get, big and little, fat and poor, in good markets and in bad markets, and with 
the least possible expenditure of time. As with other men, the individual gain of 
to-day outweighs the public good of to-morrow. 
An instance of the manner in which the public interest suffers at the hands of 
individual benefit may be cited in the cull law enacted in 1890, which required that 
all oysters measuring less than 2£ inches in length should, when caught, be returned 
at once to the water. It is generally admitted throughout the Chesapeake that could 
this regulation be enforced it would be more beneficial to the public reefs than any 
other oyster enactment ever made by the State. But as these small oysters, measur- 
ing from 1 to 2 J- inches, are worth about 20 cents per bushel it is the temporary interest- 
of each oysterman to sell them at the shucking-houses or for plantiug in other States, 
and as there are over 8,000 vessels and boats at work, it is obviously difficult for the 
fishery fleet to thoroughly enforce the law. 
*Many quotations similar to the following might he made from official reports: 
“We find that the supply of oysters has very greatly fallen off during the last three or four years. 
That this decrease has not arisen from overfishing, nor from any causes oyer which man has direct 
control, but from the very general failure of the spat, or young of the oyster, which appears, during 
the years in question, to have been destroyed soon after it was produced. A similar failure of spat 
has frequently happened before, and probably will often happen again. That the best mode of pro- 
viding against these periodical failures of the spat is to facilitate the proceedings of those individuals 
or companies who may desire to acquire so much property in favorably situated portions of the sea 
bottom as may suffice to enable them safely to invest capital in preparing and preserving these por- 
tions of the sea bottom for oyster-culture. * * * That no regulations or restrictions upon oyster 
fishing, beyond such as may be needed for the object just defined, have had, or are likely to have, any 
beneficial effect upon the supply of the oysters.” — Report of the commissioners appointed to inquire into 
the sea fisheries of the United Kingdom, 1866. 
F. C. B. 1892—19 
