THE OYSTER INDUSTRY OF MARYLAND. 
293 
Suitable regulations for ostreiculture could be adopted which, without working 
change or injury to the present free fishery on the public reefs, would permit the devel- 
opment of this industry for the employment of the idle labor of the State. They should 
meet with the approval and have the encouragement of the present oystermen of the 
Chesapeake. The cultivating systems here outlined are by no means antagonistic to 
their interests; on the contrary, they more than any others are to reap the benefits. 
These men are familiar with the bay; they are familiar with the character of the 
grounds and with the methods of handling oysters; they are already fitted out with 
boats and implements for engaging in the business. They could acquire an area of 
ground which they could take pride in cultivating and improving, in adding to from 
year to year, and something on which they might depend in their old age. 
There should be no fear of outside capitalists, monopolies, etc. There has proba- 
bly never been an instance in which, after a State has adopted a cultivating law, the 
trade has been controlled by men from other States, if any attempt has been made to 
prevent it. On the contrary, in New Jersey, New York, and Connecticut many of the 
men who at present own the large oyster farms, the fleets of vessels, and employ the 
greatest number of men, were formerly public-reef tongmen and dredgers. The mem- 
bers of a certain firm in Connecticut, who in six weeks gathered from its beds 160,000 
bushels of oysters valued at $110,000, were public-reef oystermen eighteen years ago. 
There is no warrant for concluding that the most extreme protective or restora- 
tive regulations that the State could adopt would preserve the common fishery from 
depletion to such an extent that there will be scarcely a subsistence for the men 
engaged therein. Numerous acts of assembly exist for protecting the oyster fishery 
on the public reefs of the United States coast north of Cape Cod, but not an acre of 
oyster-ground now remains to give operation to those regulations. The fishery from 
Cape Henlopen to Cape Cod has had even further restrictions, but at present scarcely 
one-twentieth of the 7,000,000 bushels of oysters produced annually in that region are 
marketed directly from the public reefs. France has witnessed the depletion of certain 
of her valuable reefs even when the fishery thereon was restricted to fourteen days in 
the year and three hours in the day. Already distress exists at times in several iso- 
lated localities in Maryland, because of the decrease in prosperity of this industry, 
and this is possibly a foreshadow of what will, in course of time, prevail in every tide- 
water region of the State if the present unfavorable conditions of the fishery continue 
without the possibility being given the oystermen for adding to their incomes by the 
investment of individual enterprise. Other than this no prospect appears for a great 
improvement in the condition of the fishermen, and the only heritage they now have to 
leave their sons is contained in their small boats and a training for engaging in a voca- 
tion already barely affording a livelihood and with a prospect of continued decrease. 
But the benefits to be derived from a proper system of private oyster-culture 
would not be confined to those persons engaging in it or to those handling the pro- 
ducts of the private areas, or to the increased amount of money disbursed along the 
shores. If the common fishery were still properly protected and regulated, private 
ostreiculture on present barren bottoms would, it seems, be of benefit to the public 
reefs and to the men operating thereon, even though the latter should never engage in 
growing oysters for themselves. The foundations for this statement are here cited: 
1. It is well known that the removal of medium-sized oysters to more favorable 
feeding-grounds on which they may remain several months greatly increases their 
