Evening journal., 1896-12-17
AGAINST DEEP WATER TONGS.
CHESTER RIVER TONGMAN SAYS
THEY BREAK UP THE SPAI-
PRODUCING BARS.

tliIo TEX fiN III AO+N1hAAF '+h 80 /
THEY BREAK UP THE SPAI- I
PRODUCING BARS.
CHEsTERTOWN. Md, Dec. III
Those Kent county oyster tongers who
do not use what are known as deep /
water tongs" are, as a rule, protesting
against their use. The tongs we're origi- /
nally intended for use in deep water, |
where the ordinary shaft tongs could
not reach. and where thousands OF
bushels of oysters lay from year to year
undisturbed The patent tongs' arc
wound up on the windlass principle,
and as a matter of course, in ex-
tremely deep water the winding-up
process is slow, the extra size of the
rakes net overcoming this great con-
side.stlon Of time, Then, too, as a rule,
the very deep-water oysters are mOie
watery and not so fine as those on the
shallower bottoms, and as result no
bottoms are exempt.
A prominent tOnger said several Jays
ago: There are several objections,
from the shaft tonger's standpoint, to
the deep-water tongs. In the first place,
an eighteen or twenty-foot shaft is as
long as a tonger can conveniently han
die and. though many are twenty-five
or twenty-four feet in length, just on
the edge of the deep water surrounding
the rivers and outside bars are the
great fertilizing ridges which make
productive the beds covered by shallow
water. The beds which are constantly
worked are kept cleared of old oysters.
/ Young oysters do not fertllize abund-
antly. and it has been this fringe of
/ old oysters lying in deep water con-
tiguous to the bars and Jumps Wuch
each season has sent out millions and
/ billions of spat. which the tides have
carried to every conceivable object TO
which they could attach themselves on
the shallow-water bars How do ! know
This? By the most conclusive proof
Bars which for years had been worked
to their utmost capacity of supply
mover failed to be ready for the tong
ers the following year. The deep
water tongs have broken up these ole
spat-producers, and some Of the bes
bars in Chester river are comparatively
ruined and all of them more or les
affected. Then. too, the heavy drag
bury and kill the oysters to a great eX
, tent. Many tOngers rather than haV
the depth increased at which the tong
ers can take oysters. have for year
past advocated legislation which woul
regulate the length Of the shafts USE
by tongers. limiting them to eighteel
or twenty feet rather than extendin
the length indefinitely.
1.-The great capacity Of the new tong
gives them an advantage over the oil
: style i'm shallow water. AS soon as tn
! outside or deep-water catch falls i
price or has been depleted, the deer
water tongers invade the shaft-tongeri
3 territory"
( A reduction by legislative enact
= ment OF the length OF the shafts, thu
c enabling the deep-water spat-produ'
:. ing beds TO remain undisturbed, is,
] the opinion of many tongers,a solutio
I 10 depleted river oyster bars and bo
i TOMS On the Kent county side {
/. Chester river the deep-water tOngs al
t. permitted, but the patent-tonger VIII
o inadvertently steps across the line inl
Queen Anne does so at his peril an
O has on several occasions been force
e 10 hand over to the Queen Anne a
u thorities substantial sum In fines.
p A few years ago q man could cat'
u from fifty to sixty bushels a day As
& result of the depleted condition of q
spawning fields twelve or titte'
bushels a day is more than an ayerai
days work.