The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1893-10-25
MARYLAND OYSTERS.
An Important Industry Of Chesa'
peeke Bay.
Some Interesting Information About the
Laws Governing the Culture OF
the Bivaives-How They
Are Gathered.

The oyster industry is very impor-
tant one in Maryland in the neighbor-
hood of the waters OF the Chesa-
pealke bay. Indeed, it has been
said that this industry was more
fruitful and important than any
other, beca1se by it more people
were directly and indirectly supported
1t is possible that. leaving out agri-
culture. this may be so. as III the IN
dustry more than thirty thousand men.
women and children are employed. OF
these persons about twelve thousand
men are engaged in catching, while
the remaining eighteen Thousand are
kept at WORT, at Smelling. grouping,
packing and so on. The boats that are
used in the oyster industry must be IL
censed By the state of Maryland, and
the licenses yield to the state sew
enty thousand dollars year.
This sum, says Harper's Weekly, is
used to support an oyster police navy,
which tries to maintain the laws and
preserve the peace. The navy is com
posed of two steam vessels and about
twenty schooners and sloops. It is OF
hcered by navy commander and about
twenty deputy commanders, with head
quarters at Annapolis. The Chesapeake
bay oysters are superior in quality,
and the waters Of the bay and it's trib-
utaries are imprcgnated with the in
gradients upon which the oyster feeds
and fattens.
Though the Chesapeake bay is the
natural home of the oyster, the beds
have been SO seriously depleted within
the last few years that fears were en-
tertained that the industry might be
very considerably curtailed. Accord
ingly, very stringent laws were passed
by the legislature of Maryland to pro-
tect the beds and regulate the taking
Of the oysters. One of the new regu-
lations is to the effect that oysters Of
a less size than two and a half inches
must be RET ned to the rock or bed
from VIII they have been taken.
This W. wise regulation. and the
good effects of the practice under it
are already noticeable. Among these
recent laws was one permitting a lease
of barren bottoms for oyster culture.
Although there are more than forty
five hundred of such leases recorded,
each lease being of five acres, there IS
no oyster-farming to any extent car
ried on. The residents of those coun-
ties bordering on the waters and inter
ested in the industry have been so de-
termined in their opposition to the
culture of oysters that so far the enter
prise has not amounted to much.
There are two ways of taking ov-
sters, dredging and longing, and in
the season of 1928 there were over
nine hundred vessels engaged in dredg-
ing. and great many more than this
in longing. The crews of dredging
vessels vary with the capacity of the
boats, and range from captain and
five men to a captain and twelve men.
These men, by the way. though they
must work hard and are exposed TO
great hardship and frequently to dam
ger, are not well paid. Therefore a
good class of labor is not attracted. A
Maryland state officer who recently in
vestigated the oystermen of the Chcsa-
peake said that the dredging crews
were made up from ''the lowest STRAIT
UNI of nearly all nations on earth. {"
The tongers are of better class, and
are usually natives of the Chesapeake
counties. The life Of the oyster-catcher
is hard and thankless. as he can
scarcely ever hope to earn more than
enough to sustain himself mearerly.
They are out in the severest winter
weather. and not infrequently they are
very unsuitably clad for such work.
Many of the men SO employed &c ont
in the coolest weather, with no heavier
body covering than half-worn flannel
shirts. Last winter vessels were frozen
up out in the bay, while the crews
were without either food or water.
The officer before alluded to has ex-
pressed the opinion that if the tender
hearted among the oyster consumers
knew with how much pain and suffer
ing these bivalves were brought from
their saltwater homes to the dining
table, they would not eat them in the
happy frame of mind necessary to a
full appreciation of this finest of all
sea-foods.