The evening times. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1895-1902, 1901-11-21
MARYLAND LOSING
IT'S OYSTER TRADE.
INDUSTRY NEEDS LEGISLATIVE AID
RfvnIYes becoming ScnTcer and Live
~ Competition North and south
Cutting Into isaItimore's
business.

bALIAA0RE, nov. Z1--AccoIdlnS 70
| men who are familiar with the situation.
MaryIand,s oyster industry is menaced
and something must be done to meet COM
petition and to keep up the supply Of bi-
valves
h J. McGrath. Of this city. is of the
opinion that the matter should receive
legislative attention as soon as possible
In discussing thu situation, sir. McGrath
said.
Something has to be done, and that
very shortly, if the people of Maryland
wish to keep up the revenue which IS Sc
| cured from the oyster industry in this
State The condition of affairs at the
present time IS alarming IN the last five
years a great deal of The trade which
formerly belonged to Baltimore has gone
to other points This has been the result
I of several causes In the first place the
supply has. year by year. been growing
less, and it takes great deal longer for
| the oystermen TO secure q cargo than il
formerly did
"As the supply decreased the price went
up and we are. paying 65 cents to 81 per
bushel fer the same grade of oysters that
we formerly secured for from 30 to 90
cents. This necessitated our charging
more for The shucked oysters. which, nat
uraIly. did not suit the Northern and
Western buyers These began to look
elsewhere for their goods.
New England a Rival
"The Northern trade is now held by the
New England States, particularly COnneC-
ticut the waters Of which were planted
with seed oysters obtained from the Ches-
apeake. The output there IS just about
enough 30 supply that section The West
eTn buyers now get their oysters from
Southern Writer'S, Mississippi Sound fur
n5shing mos. Of them II Is 2 physical in
possibility, as matters now stand, for
packers in Baltimore 10 compete with The
Northern and Southern people. What has
been the result? i number of firms which
used to do business here have left and
opened plants down South 4 number OF
others VIII have 10 leave If present con-
ditions continue
ExhaustfnE the supply
1t is a weII-known tact that the spawn
OF oysters must adhere TO some hard sur
face or they will be carried of by the cur
rents and die Now, some portions of the
Chesapeake have been worked so much
that there is absolutely nothing left IN
the bottom If this barren ground should
be cultivated II would not be long before
the place would show a growth Of oys-
tiers.
Here is an illustration Look at this
old rubber boot II was probably thrown
overheard by some dTedgeT as useless.
There are nearly dozen and half OF
small oysters clingins to it.
y Profitable Experiment,
"A few years ago I invested SZ,S00 in de-
veIoping an experiment I leased fifteen
acres OF water property and took the
oyster shells from the packing house here
and had them thrown overheard at this
fifteen-acre bed I did this following out
my idea that the spawn must have q
rough hard surface to cling to The re
suIJ far exceeded my expectations This
one bed has yielded as my share over 81
500 worth of oysters As I gave One-haf
the profits to the party who worked the
bed. you can see that the output Of that
one place has been 5000.
If this is so ii small way. I say let
the oyster shells be deposited IN the bay,
either by the State approprjating sufficient
money to have the work done, OF give the
right 10 individuals 10 lease certain poT-
lions Of the Chesapeake and let them do
so.
shorten the Season.
Other States have done this and the
supply has been kept up Il would not
cost much more than cents q busheI TO
DO this work, and the results would be
something enormous Another thing that
I believe should be done is to shorten the
season. September should be taken out.
This would give the growing oyster
chance and prevent the beds from becom-
ing exhausted 50 rapidly