University of Virginia Library

THE CAUSE OF THE EXHAUSTION OF THE BEDS.

While the reason for the exhaustion of our beds is

perfectly clear and simple, the greatest ignorance upon
this point exists in the minds of our people.

Certain writers have attributed the destruction of
the oysters to disease, like the pious oystermen of
Wellfleet, on Cape Cod, who, after they had exterminated
their oysters by over-fishing, laid their loss upon
Providence, which had, they said, punished them for
their sins by inflicting a fatal disease upon the innocent
oysters.

Some of the explanations of the destruction of the
oysters come from persons who have enjoyed such
opportunities for observation and study of the subject
that broader views might fairly be expected from them.

Thus, to explain the disappearance of oysters from
the New England coast north of Cape Cod, a well-known
conchologist, Dr. Gould, says that he does not
believe there were ever any oysters there; while a very
eminent naturalist, Prof. Verrill, holds that the climate
of New England has undergone a change within the
last century or two, and that it is now too cold for
oysters, although a few scattered oysters are found
there still, and although they are still abundant at some
points on the much colder coast of New Brunswick,
and although we have the minute accounts which the
early settlers have given us of the gradual destruction
of their oysters as the population increased.

We can hardly be surprised that our people should
exhibit total ignorance of the true cause of the destruction,
when we recollect that there is not a single
word in any of the laws of Maryland which indicates
that our legislators are aware that the supply of oysters
can be artificially increased, or that there is need for
any such increase.

The contrast between the views upon the oyster
question which are now prevalent among our people,
and those which come from a broad-minded consideration
of the question in all its relations, can be illustrated
by an example. The uncivilized Indians are
able to supply all their wants from the natural resources
of their hunting-grounds, but as population
increases, food grows scarcer and hard to procure, and
it soon becomes evident that the natural supply is
not enough. The first impulse, in such an emergency,
is to restrict the demand, by driving away or starving
out the superfluous population; and if savage tribes
were able to enact and enforce laws, they would no
doubt try to preserve their game by laws restricting
the quantity to be killed, or by laws forbidding the use
of improved appliances for capturing it.

Civilized races have long recognized the fact that
the true remedy is not to limit the demand, but rather
to increase the supply of food, by rearing domestic
sheep and cattle and poultry in the place of wild deer
and buffaloes and turkeys, and by cultivating the
ground instead of searching for the natural fruits and
seeds of the forests and swamps.

It is not in a spirit of harsh criticism, but in the
hope that our people may be awakened to their own
interest, that we point out the similarity between the
views of our people and their legislators and the
opinions of savage races. We live in a highly civilized
age, and if we fail to grasp its spirit we shall go
to the wall before the oyster cultivators of the Northern
States, and those of Virginia and North Carolina,
just as surely as the Indians have been exterminated

by the whites. We cannot resist the progress of
events, but we can control it if we will be wise in time.

It is not essential that a patient should know the
nature and cause of his disease, but this knowledge is
of the greatest importance to his physician, and it is
of equal importance that the men who are called upon
to legislate for the preservation of our oysters should
clearly understand the true reason for their destruction.

I state, then, in capital letters, that our beds are in
danger,