Virginia citizen. (Irvington, Va.) 1891-1921, 1910-01-14

ginia has 226, 900 acres of natural rocks
and 400, 900 acres suitable for planting
purposes. ''These figures" says the
report, ''do not hold good today. The
productive acreage of natural rock has
diminished materially, largely from
depletion and unlawful holdings. In the
400, 600 acres of planting ground there
was some bottom embraced that was
not suited to planting. but this is offset
today, probably, by areas of depleted
natural rock"
Rearrange Baylor Lines.
Therefore, while the commission is
unaltersbly opposed to abolishing the
Baylor Survey, or to leasing out any
part of the producing rocks, it does
believe that in some localities (the
James, for instance), 1t would be wise
Fin fact, it is demanded-to rearrange
the Baylor lines, taking in some grounds
omitted and throwing out some that
should not be included therein. This
should be done only by careful and
tedious examination, and by easy stages.
at the hands of expert and unbiased
men. Some immediate action is urgently
needed"
In further discussion Of this matter.
the report says: ''The seaside and
Mobjack Bay might also be considered
to the advantage of State and citizens.
as they are much in need of examina-
tion and action along these lines. The
seed producers of the seaside should
have ground on which to scatter their
seed. An unsatisfactory condition exists
there now. Tongers and riparian clai-
mants are in constant clash. What ap-
pears to be an erroneous position is
being of late taken by land owners in
claiming to Glow water mark" the bot
toms that ebb bare, stretching to sea
in places for miles beyond the property
owners heretofore recognized shore
line.
UNLESS means are devised for defin-
ing the low water mark and legislative
enactment settles once for all these
difficulties, the commission will be DOW
erless to remedy conditions there, and
the courts of the Eastern Shore can
never clear their dockets of suits, civil
and criminal.
PatrOliing the James.
"In James river zigzag lines prevent
effective policing. Unless the lines are
Strengthened there, to permit easy
guarding by means of watchhouses or
watch boats, the State must incur great
and ever increasing expense in patroll-
ing this river. In Mobjack Bay and the
rivers of Mathews and Gloucester border
ing on the Mobjsck, the clam is begin
ming to take precedence over the oyster.
In fact, the latter is nearly extinct there,
but the bottoms could be made produc-
tive again if in the hands Of the best
citizens of that community. Under
present conditions few Of these whites
can afford to:waste time on their rocks,
They are left for the most part to an
element that is badly needed in the
cornfields, the larger number of tongers
going to other waters of the State.
The fishing, claiming and Grabbing
industries seem to be in excellent con-
dition. The yield is good and increasing.
Wisdom in private culture and in
tegrity in dealing with both planting
and public grounds and their manipu-
lators, says the Commission, in its con-
clusion, "will insure to Virginia possi-
bilities hardly dreamed of; for nature
has been more bountiful to us in our
water wealth than to any State in
America. What Maryland claims to be
true mightapply in some degree to Vir=
ginia-The most valuable of the pessea-
sions of Maryland, more valuable than
its farms and its fields and its forests,
more valuable than its mines and it's
quarries, Is the Chesapeake Bay"