7 
from the natural bars, or in periods of stormy weather when 
the impossibility of working the more exposed locations had 
reduced the supply and consequently increased the price, these 
bedded oysters were taken up and placed on the market. 
This practice was not limited to the oystermen alone; the 
packing houses began to buy in larger quantities than they 
needed at periods of low price and bedded the oysters until 
an increase in price made it possible for them to secure an 
increased profit, or if the location which they had secured for 
the bedding process was a favorable one they bought small 
or poor oysters at a low price, bedded them in more favorable 
waters and took them up not only increased in size of shell 
but also fattened and improved in quality. 
To a certain extent the beds thus appropriated by private 
uses were then, as today, respected and protected by a sort 
ot mutual agreement; in very much the same way as the pres- 
ent-day crabbers divide the territory on a certain river among 
themselves and enjoy most of the advantages of private owner- 
ship without any of the taxation or other burdens usually inci- 
dent to title. There was, however, no possibility of legal-pro- 
tection if anyone chose to violate the general agreement to 
respect these various appropriated areas. We find, therefore, 
as early as 1860, a legal provision for the appropriation of one 
acre, which was later increased to five acres; provided, how- 
ever, that the area was properly staked out, surveyed by some 
competent surveyor and the location recorded with the Circut 
Court. With this increase from one to five acres, however, 
there came a recognition of a distinction between the natural 
bar and non-natural bar; the right to take up a five-acre lot 
being expressly conditioned upon the fact that no portion of 
any natural bed or bar should be thus appropriated, and pro- 
visions were made for a court determination, in the case of 
any dispute, as to the character of the bottom appropriated. 
This early legislation shows the influence of three special 
ideas, which from the beginning have been in the minds of 
the oystermen and have shaped all subsequent legislation. 
The first of these ideas was that the oyster industry should 
be restricted to citizens of Maryland. The natural oyster bed 
was regarded as one of the resources of the State, belonging 
