Saint Mary's beacon. [volume] (Leonard Town, Md.) 1867-1983, 1891-05-14


Now, 1 have been down the Bay
and watched the dredgers at work
upon the bars. 1 have sailed NJ
the rivers and seen the patient tong.
er plying his vocation where the
sunlight glinted on the rippling
current of the stream. In the pur-
suit Of knowledge / have read some
essays on the construction and pro-
pagation of oysters but | realize
that / fall far short of that practi-
cal knowledge necessary to qualify
an expert, and which only long and
varied and Thorough experience in
the fisheries of our State affords.
l am not prepared to accept, no
lens rolens, every theory which these
self-constituted prophets of oyster
determination please to foretell.
am not prepared to believe that
their der JM- for private property
il the Esolic domain is an absolute
necessity or that they can accom-
phish all that they claim in the NY
Of propagation. -
A great cloud of uncertainty has
been cast about the discussion of
this oyster question by the reckless
use of figures. If we say it is true
that We now catch only 5000, 900
bushels per year, and that we for
merly caught $4,000, 900 bushels
per year, and that it is equally true
that this depletion is caused by the
present public occupancy of the
oyster beds ; and if we further say
that it is true that with private
ownership of the beds we would
certainly catch 10000, 900 bushels
per year, and from employing as at
present $4,000 people, We would
then employ 500, 900, as has been
recently asserted, then, of course,
the controversy is ended, and there
remains but the logical conclusion
that the present is all wrong and
the private ownership theory is all
right.
But, my friends, it is so easy a
matter to say or write $4,000, 900,
Ss'F--s-fe-fs So equa1y easy 10 say or
write 10000, 900, that the majority
of people accept such figures with
out question: Let us say that A
and B discuss the oyster yield of
the Maryland fisheries. A says
"You could gather from this sys-
tenn of private planting 10000, 900
bushels :" b expresses it as his
opinion that it would be 80, 900. 900
bushels. Now, they are both per-
fectly safe they could write down
such an opinion for publication in
the New York newspapers, and no
one would be able to challenge their
statement. They might with equal
truth call it 150,O0O,OOO or anv
other sum their fancy dictated.
But between these estimates"
there is quantity of 100000
bushels. What does that mean :
1t means enough oysters to feed
two hundred millions of people at
a roast, or it would give one thou
sand men one dozen on the half
shell every day for six hundred
years.
We are gravely told that cit is
possible to fertilize thousands of
millions of oyster-eG1s in watch
glass, and supply oyster spat for
the whole Bay - and in these days
of scientific research, when we are
reducing everything in nature to
germs" and molecules :" when
We breed incipient disease and bot
tie it for family use, l suppose We
common people ought to accept a
small scientific assertion like that
with due faith and respect.
But let us abandon the flights of
speculation and come down to ac-
tual facts. Not what might. could
or should be, but just what is. We
issue in the State of Maryland, in
the Circuit Courts of the Bay coun-
ties, about eight thousand longing
and scraping licences per year,
which means, of course the same
mum Der of boats. To the tongers'
boats, averaging three men, and the
scrapers' seven men per boat, add
eight hundred dredge boats with
nine men per boat and it gives
$4,000 men employed in catching
oysters add to this 10000 people
employed in shucking and packing,
and We have an aggregate of 1000
people directly employed in the cove
and raw oyster trade. Then con-