Evening capital. (Annapolis, Md.) 1884-1910, 1888-03-02


dressing you this open letter, being but
soj0urner among you, and knowing no
other way 10 which to address you on
certain subjects now pending before your
honorable body, and in which I take
Lively interest refer 10 the bills in re-
gard to oyster dredging 10 your State. 1t
Is true am stranger among you and
perhaps you may think 1t presumption on
my part. in intruding my views. But
blood is thicker than water" and nv
offspring Is resident of your State aud my
blood courses through the veins of some
to the manor born Moreover, l could
not, conscientiously, supinely stand by and
see so great an interest as the oyster bust
ness in further peril, without raising my
voice at least IN humble protest. / under
stand ii Is the desire of certain parties TO
open certain reserved oyster beds to the
dredgers. Do not permit it, gentlemen
Take warning In time. You in your ex
allied sphere in life perhaps have not
studied this question. as necessity has
compelled me to do and / speak from
knowledge gotten from experience. In
the great South Bay, south of Long Is
land, in the State Of New York, dredging
is prohibited; 1t being found that the
oyster was being exterminated; and now
heavy fines and imprisonment reward the
selfish dredger. But the great beds have
been so thinned out and torn up by the
dredgers that where once the toiling ton
ger could earn good living, he finds now
nothing but the backened shells Of the
old oyster beds on which the spawn will
not catch, and In many cases the mud has
again taken possession and the beds cease
To exist. The Legislature of the State of
New York are taking active measures to
preserve the natural oyster beds Of the
State, and ii seems to me that wise states
men OF the State of Maryland can~de no
less. North Carolina, by the agency of
| Lieut. Winslow. is locating the oyster
beds within her border, and by wise leg
islation proposes to take care of them.
Why is il these dredgers want the re
served beds open to them The answer is
obvious. 1t is because they have so de-
stroyed their privileged grounds that
| dredging ceases TO pay on them, and now
| tongers' privileges. But pause and
think moment before you permit it.
| You may kill the goose that laid the
golden egg" and If you break up these
beds you may utterly cripple one of the
| greatest industries of your State as we'll
as rob thousands of honest tongers of the
means of livelihood.
These reserved beds still serve as the
natural spawning ground of the oyster,
and in time, by them, the depleted beds
| may become again recuperated. Open
them to the dredger and you kill the last
| resource. 1t has taken centuries to create
an oyster bed aud longing does not destroy
tor the shells are Immediately thrown
over and thus the beds are kept intact.
But the dredger drags the shells into the
mud, tears thousands of more oysters to
| pieces than he catches, and wherever
| dredging has been permitted the beds
have been destroyed France protects her
oyster beds and only at intervals of five
years are alternate portions of her grounds
thrown open to the oystermen. Where
are the oyster beds of Great Britain, cele
brated so far back as the time of Julius
Caesar? Dredged out of existence. Can
not the statesmen of MARYLAND take les
| son from history? 1t would be millions
of dollars in the treasury of the counties
bordering on the Chesapeake If they were
to combine and prohibit dredging every
where within their waters for term of
say five years. This would allow those
beds that are not utterly destroyed time to
| recuperate and then dredging should be
restricted to alternate sections and only
| where tongers from the depth of water
cannot work. 1t has been argued by the
| dredging interests, that they help spread
| the beds and so enhance the production
of the oyster. This is not So Where
they spread they mud up and destroy. Ii
would take millions of tons of oyster
shells to make or extend little bed. for
an oyster bed must be hard and solid,
above the wash of mud and sand The
heavy dredges dragging over the beds Kill
millions of little oysters as we'll as break
of the bills of larger ones, which subse-
quently die. The proof of all this is that
where beds have been reserved for proper
| longing, they are still productive and
| flourishing. Those where dredging has
been permitted are nearly destroyed. And
now your dredgers with cOnsummate sci.
| tiShness want to take even what little is
| left for the tongers away from them. |
trust your honorable body will not permit
this iniquity. There are other resources
| for the dredgers as well as dredging
| They too can tong also Once open your
reserved beds to the dredgers and in less
than two seasons you can shut your oys-
ter shops up; and then, gentlemen, /
should advise you to enlarge your poor
houses for humanity will demand it. How
are the thousands who now make living
by longing to procure the means of exist
ence! In what estimation would the
statesmen be held who would reduce so
large body of citizens to beggary, thus
| throwing the burden of their support on
your already over-taxed farmers, and at
the same time helping by his vote to de-
stroy one Of the greatest industries of the
State-the oyster industry The political
death knell will be surely sounded for the
individual who gives his vote to this
measure, at least as far as this county is
concerned. Then again there is another
hight in which to look at this question -
These dredging boats are manned, / am
informed, almost exclusively by the low
est of foreigners, tramps and drunken
vagabonds; very few of those on board,
vita the exception of the Captain and Of
hcers being American citizens. Will
YOU take the bread away from your own