Peninsula enterprise. [volume] (Accomac, Va.) 1881-1965, 1901-02-09
The Oyster Question.

Mr. Editor:-Please allow me space
In your paper to reply to the Hon.
g. w. Matthews utterances In last
issue of Enterprise, in which he says,
the people were generally satisfied on
the subject OF oyster legislation and
that the oyster industry Is In better
shape than 1t had been In past years.
l want to answer by saying the Rep
resentative is certainly ignorant OF
the oyster industry, or is trying to
misrepresent It altogether. | won
der what class OF oyetermen he has
been conversing with and finds them
satisfied with the present oyster laws.
| don't know of but Que class OF oys-
termen that are satisfied with the
present condition Of oyster laws and
that is the Fish Commissioners |
suppose they receive their salaries
and are satisfied. Rut the oystermen
that pay these various salaries AID
expenses are making less money and
have made less for the past three or
four years than they have for the
last 30 years before, and there is a
cause for it, that any sensible Oyster
man can see.
Ia the first place, we have great
many dredge boats In Virginia and
they are only required to pay license
10 dredge but with scarcely no
ground to dredge on, yet the State
has ground with lots of oysters on II,
and they are annually dying and
paying nobody anything, while IL
the dredgers had the ground they
could do we'll on 1t and pay license
and injure nobody We have lots OF
oysters in deep water that topgers
cannt get and some OF our shoal
water rocks want dredging awhile,
and wh,t Because there is scarcely
auy oysters now on the rocks that
tongers can get, and yet the top of
the shell is covered with coral, a little
worm that builds and lives In their
little houses on the shells, which
destroys the oyster spawns, when
they strike the shells on the rocks
IL these rocks could be dredged and
the shells worked over it would kill
the worm and cause oysters to catch
aud grow, 80 these tongers would
have something to work on. There
are not ten men making a living
longing in Pocomoke Sound to-day,
when ten years ago there we're hund-
reds of them.
Another fact, l want to call atten-
ton to, is the Potomac river and the
law in regard to ii. AS is well known,
Maryland and Virginia have equal
rights in the Potomac, while ain
snre Maryland has five or six times
as many dredgc boats as Virginia
has. In 1899 Maryland passed a law,
when both Maryland and Virginia
legislators were in session, to stop all
dredging in Maryland waters until
the first of November OF last year
while both States had been com
mencing previously the middle OF
October. And why was the change
made In Maryland to a later datef
Because 80 many oysters were Loot
by being caught and pushed on the
market during the warm weather.
Yet | have facts in my possession
that Representative Applegarth, OF
| MARYLAND, wrote two different letters
TO our representatives when both
bodies were in session, to make a
Joint law, to stop all dredging in the
Potomac until the let OF November
OF each year and our representative
never answered his letters nor re-
garded them. Then who could blame
Maryland for sending her boats in
the Potomac, to the vast number OF
400 or 1900 boats or for the result viz
that they caught nearly all the oys-
ters the first 10 days and pushed
them in the market and nearly all oil
them were lost. With the oysters In
the Potomac all gone the Maryland
boats go over to the Maryland
waters, where they have good croE
Of oysters awaiting them and the
Virginia boats are left in the Poto'
mac with scarcely any oysters tc
catch. The result is that our dred
gers, taking them on average on re
turning at Christmas, had not made
more than expenses and nearly al
their boats have since been laid up
Now, reader, think you that the
oystermen in general are better sat
i,fied than they have been in pas
years or notf No sir, but we would moi
grumble il our representatives baC
tried to make laws to benefit us,aftel
making strict laws to tax us more
than we are able to pay, to raise
money to pay officers that do no
know, or do not care for the interest
OF the oystefmen.
Respectfully,
T. IN