The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1905-08-04
oyster Legislation.

Probably the most important question
which will be presented to the next Legis-
lature for solution is the one of passing
official laws for the preservation aud in
crease of Maryland's oyster supply. The
question has been presented time and
again for many years, and volumes of
statutes have been enacted and repealed,
but the bivalves have steadily dwindled in
numbers from season to season until, for
practical and commercial purposes, it is
almost exhausted. The laws heretofore
passed seem about as futile as the streams
of water which were thrown upon the
great Baltimore fire of Feb, 1904. AS
they have failed in their anticipated and
promised effect, they were evidently not
wise laws, and for the same reason, their
advocates should, without opposition, per-
NIT trial of different system.
But it may be taken for granted that
there will be strong opposition to any
radical change in the present methods.
Every year witnesses some assertions from
the ranks of those who advocate the
alleged sacred, traditional rights of the
tongers and dredgers to take oysters
wherever and practically whenever they
please, but the converts in the oystering
counties are comparatively few, and the
average legislator from the oystering
counties, even though convinced in his
own mind of the need of rational sys-
tenn of leasing the beds, has not sufi-
Gent courage to risk the displeasure of
his oyster catching constituents by ad-
has shown that when an effective law is
passed it must be done, in the main,
through the efforts of the representatives
of the no1- oyster producing counties and
of Baltimore city. The voters should see
to it that the members sent to the House
of Delegates rext winter are men of the
right convictions and competent to deal
with this most important matter.
Prejudice it really is, and not ignor-
ance, which causes the oysterman to
inveigh blndly against any legislation
which is not framed by his own repre-
sentatives or which might tend to
infringe his alleged God-given right of
common fishery"
Although no experiments have been
made in this State, yet we have the ex-
perience of other States to guide us, and
this points unerringly to leasing as the
feasible remedy. Not only has the CUES.
ton been given intelligent treatment in
Connecticut. Rhode Island, New Jersey,
and New York, but the oyster grounds of
Virginia and North Carolina, and those
of Georgia and Louisiana, are increasing
in value, and many of our packing houses
are being moved to the South, bnt there is
no oyster farming in Maryland, and our
oyster beds are still in state of nature,
afording scanty and precarious liveli-
hood to those who depend upon them.
The people of Maryland are now well
posted upon the tremendous possibilities
of oyster culture. They are aware
of the great fecundity of the bivalves
and of the extreme ease and SIM
plicity of the methods used in securing
the spat and promoting its growth.
They are also not ignorant of the great
revenue which would inure to the State
and the profits which would be reaped by
individuals engaged in the enterprise
through practical and judicious de-
velopment and improvement of the
natural resources of the Chesapeake Bay
and its tributaries The time has come
for this knowledge to beget sentiment and
public opinion which will so irresistibly
Impress our representatives in the Legisla-
ture that they may disregard bias and
prejudice and give US practical and sensi.
BILE legislation. News.