REPORT OF THE BOARD OF SHELL FISH 
COMMISSIONERS OF MARYLAND 
It is impossible to understand the present situation of the 
oyster industry in the State of Maryland without a study of 
the history of the industry. For the purposes of this discus- 
sion the history of the industry may be divided into four 
periods, the divisions between these periods being marked by 
the passage in 1906 of the so-called Haman Bill providing for 
a survey and a system of leasing under general State super- 
vision ; the passage in 1912 of the so-called Price-Campbell Bill 
extending the privileges of lessees, and the passage in 1914 of 
the so-called Shepherd Bill providing for resurveys and the 
condemnation of existing leases. 
At the beginning of the first period there was, of course, no 
legislation whatever upon the subject of oyster culture in 
Maryland, but so far back as the earliest Code (1860) a con- 
siderable body of law had been developed intended to prevent 
the depletion of the beds by the use of scoops and drags, or 
the taking of oysters by non-residents of the State, or the use 
of oysters from certain beds for fertilizer or lime-making. 
At this time also the practice of bedding oysters had ob- 
tained sufficient importance to be recognized in the Code, 
which gave to any citizen the right to bed oysters on any land 
below water included within the lines of the abutting property 
owned by him or on land under creeks, coves or inlets not 
exceeding 100 yards in width at the mouth; or, if the citizen 
owned property abutting on the waters of the State, he might 
locate and appropriate an area not exceeding one acre in ex- 
tent, provided only that it was properly marked and described 
and the location and description recorded, and provided fur- 
ther, that his action in so locating the property should not 
interfere with navigation or trespass upon the property owned 
by private parties or held by private parties in coves less than 
100 yards in width at the mouth. 
It is worth while noting that in this earlier period there was 
nothing in the law to prevent a man taking up one acre of 
natural bar. 
