The Prince George's enquirer and southern Maryland advertiser. (Upper Marlborough, Md.) 1882-1925, 1908-02-14
SYSTEM FOR UNBIASED
BOTTOMS.

It is now certain that a great area
of oyster bottoms will be reserved
from leasing when the State Sbel' fish
Commission shall have completed
the surveys which it has been en-
Saged in making to determine just
what of these bottoms must be re-
served under he..sprovisions of the
general leasing law. The bottoms
that will be reserved are those that
are best adapted to the conditions OF
oyster life, as all of them are yet, to
an extent, producing oysters without
artificial aid. By the determining
rule which the Shellfsh Commission
has adopted, however: thousands OF
acres Of these reserved bottoms will
be an impoverished grade, such as
naturally produce oysters only
sparsely-three or four oysters to
every square yard. Plainly enough,
it is a vast waste of resource that
is potentially valuable-immensely
valuable-to allow these Unbiased
bottoms to continue in an impover-
ished. condition when it is known
that by" rightly directed effort to
weld from them can be increased
twenty and perhaps fifty fold. 1t il
a plain, common sense business prop
osition that these oyster lands which
are to be withheld from development
by private enterprise should not be
permitted by the State to 60 to
ruin. 1t will be worse than useless,
however-lt will be stupidity waste
ful-to appropriate money from the
state treasury for Smelling oyster
bottoms without specially devised
system of management of those bot
TENS whereby they may be improved
and developed. In communics-
tiou recently published the sugges
ton was made that certain areas
should be staked off and that these
set-apart areas should be developed
by Smelling and by other cultural de-
vices under the management Of the
Shellfsh Commission or of some 9th.
er delegated agency of the state.
While this would constitute . mark
ed departure from the system OF
management of states oyster indus,
tries that has hitherto been opera.
tive, there is no apparent reason why
it would not be change that would
be vastly for the better. At least,
an experiment in this direction
would result in determining the
practicability of the method. If as
much as 1000 or even 10000 acres
of the reserved bottoms should be
set apart as state oyster farms and
these areas should be developed to
their highest productive capacity by
the ap plcation of the best-known
methods of artificial oyster culture.
the experiment would result in a
valuable object-lesson if it resulted
in nothing more. But there is am
pie reason for believing that if such
oyster-prod ucing enterprises were
honestly and intelligently managed
and could be kept free from the cor.
rupting blight of trafficking politics,
the state would ultimately reap null
tiplied returns for the monetary out
lay made.
The question naturally occurs as
to what would become Of the oyster
men-those who make a livelihood
from the taking OF oysters-under a
system of state development OF the re-
served bottoms. If these reserved
bottoms should eventually be made
by cultural effort to yield 60,O00,O 900
bushels of oysters annually instead
of the meager 100000 bushels to
which the yield has been limited dur
ing recent years, this vast increase
would surely mean prosperity for
the oystermen. 1t would require an
immense force to handle such an oys,
ter crop, and the probabilities are
that even upon a wage scale there
would be more constant employment
and better reward than the oys-
termen are now able to win. II the
objection is put forward that the
state should not engage in industrial
enterprise, it is to be answered that
these oyster bottoms are now state
properties, and that upon the State
government rests the responsibility
OF handling them to the best advan
tage. The states oyster properties
should be supervised with firm hand
should be managed according to ap-
proved business methods. The hap
hazard system, or, rather, lack of
system, that has hitherto prevailed
has resulted in the impoverishment
potentially vast wealth producing
properties. If the state is to spend
money in developing the reserved
oyster bottoms, the outlay should be
made under such statutory regula-
tons as will protect the state and
assure ample returns for the money
cxpended.-Baltimore American.
Senator Foraker has declared that
the Republican primaries in Ohio
were "factionaP and he would con-