 | CHAPTER VI. The oyster : |  |
CHAPTER VI.
A TALK ABOUT OYSTERS.
An intelligent and successful farmer, visiting an
oyster-packer in Baltimore, said: "I know nothing of
oysters except what I have heard, but I wish to know
more, and I should like to ask you a few questions.
Since I have been here I have seen in the newspapers
most glowing statements regarding the advantages of
Maryland for producing oysters, yet I am constantly
being told that all branches of the oyster industry are
depressed and in a most discouraging condition. The
last two or three winters have been very mild and, I
should suppose, very favorable for work upon the
beds; yet I hear that few of the oystermen earned
enough to pay expenses last year, and they all say
that this winter matters have been very much worse.
Your friends in the packing business tell me that the
oysters are deteriorating in quality, and that they are
growing so scarce that some of the packers have
moved away from Baltimore. You say that people in
Australia and New Zealand, as well as in Europe and
in all parts of our own country, who formerly ordered
great quantities of Maryland oysters, no longer
patronize you. I hear you complain that, while your
business is falling off, you have more and more difficulty
each year in filling your orders, and I can see
as they used to be. You tell me that you buy
Virginia and North Carolina oysters, although your
own beds are right here at home. Now I should like
to know whether the waters of Maryland are not as
fit for growing oysters as those of other States?"
"Most certainly they are," answered the packer.
"We all know that our waters are capable of producing
the finest oysters in the world in immeasurable abundance.
Like all citizens of Maryland, I am very proud
of this great natural resource, and I regard our oyster
grounds as by far the most valuable land in our State."
"What is the trouble? Is the demand too great
to be supplied from your own waters?"
"That is a difficult question to answer in a word.
For some time past the demand has exceeded the supply
from the natural beds, which formerly gave us all
the oysters we needed; and as the eating-houses and
the private consumers in the city take all the best, I am
forced to send my customers oysters too young to be
palatable and nutritious. But the demand from all
sources has never reached anything like the amount
which our oyster-beds might easily be made to yield."
"I cannot make your two statements agree. The
sale and consumption of immature oysters seem to
me like mowing down young wheat to make hay.
Why is nothing done to increase the supply? I am
told that in Delaware and New Jersey, in Rhode
Island and in other States which have no great
natural advantages, such as you claim for Maryland,
the value of the natural supply has been very much
increased by placing the young `seed' oysters on
ready for the market. In my experience as a market-gardener
I have found that while onions a year old
can be sold, it is much more profitable to plant them
as `seed' a second year, and to give them another
season's growth before sending them to market. Instead
of packing and selling these small oysters, why
do you not treat them as I treat my `seed' onions?
Are there no lands in your State suitable for oyster-planting?"
"You need only to look at a map of Maryland for
an answer to that question. We have nearly three
hundred miles of coast-line, all of it broken up into
creeks and inlets and sounds and bays. All these are
well adapted for oyster-planting, and might easily be
made much more so. Besides this we have thousands
of acres of low, marshy land, of no value at present.
At a slight expense this might be converted into systems
of artificial oyster-ponds, where oysters could be
stored and held for a favorable market, and where
they would grow and increase in value, like your seed
onions."
"This is most surprising. How is it that these
natural advantages are not seized upon and developed?
Do not your people know the importance and profit of
oyster-planting?"
"Certainly they do. Oyster-planting has been carried
on in a small way for many years, and there are
many men in our State who understand the business
thoroughly. Besides, we have a most remarkable
illustration of its value only a few miles beyond our
border. At Hampton Roads, in the lower part of the
with great energy and enthusiasm. It is conducted
on such a large scale that a big steamboat is now
loaded with very fine oysters every day, from grounds
which six years ago did not supply enough to meet the
local demand."
"I am told that in Connecticut it has been found
possible to grow oysters from the eggs, in the way
that I grow wheat and corn; and to establish new
oyster-beds in deep water by covering the bottom
with oyster shells, to catch the floating embryos. Is
there no place in the bay where this can be done?"
"Most assuredly there is. No place in the world is
better suited for oyster-farming. We have hundreds
of thousands of acres which are most valuable for this
purpose, and experiments have shown that there is no
part of the bay where new beds might not ultimately
be established by shelling the bottom, or by the use of
other spat-collectors."
"Why don't you do it? How can you complain of the
scarcity of oysters when you have such an opportunity
for oyster-farming? Is not the business profitable?"
"You may judge of this for yourself when I tell you
that, in good places, a crop of five or six thousand
bushels a year might be harvested from each acre, with
very little labor or outlay. No other branch of oyster
culture gives as much profit upon the investment of
capital and labor as deep-water oyster-farming."
"Does no one in Maryland understand the business?"
"Oh yes! Many of our packers do business in
Connecticut, and they have seen for themselves how
farmers the shells which they scatter over
their land to collect the spat, and there are many citizens
of Maryland who know all about the business,
and even some who have attempted to put the Connecticut
methods into practice in our own waters."
"Were these attempts unsuccessful? Are the oysters
exposed here to dangers which do not exist in
Long Island Sound? I am told that in Connecticut
oysters in shallow water are often killed by ice, and
that the deep-water farms are open and exposed to
violent storms which, in the winter, often drive the
loose sand and mud over the oysters and bury and
destroy them. I hear, too, that the farmers suffer from
the ravages of starfish. They tell me that these animals
often come up in great armies, on to the beds,
from outside, and that they destroy whole farms,
leaving behind them only the empty shells. Do these
accidents and enemies threaten the farming industry
in Maryland?"
"Not at all," answered the packer. "We are so fortunate
as to have none of these causes of failure.
While the water of our bay is perfectly adapted for
oysters, it is too fresh for starfish. They are sometimes
found in the lower part, near the ocean, but they
are never numerous enough to do much damage. Our
climate is too mild for the ice to do much harm, and the
bay is so well sheltered and landlocked that there are
few places where oysters are exposed to much danger
from storms. Most of our bottoms are so well protected
that the hardest winds cause very little movement."
"You say oyster-farming has been tried in Maryland.
Was it successful?"
"That depends upon what you mean by success.
I can tell you of one farmer who, on about seventy
acres of bottom in Virginia, close to the Maryland
line, raised a crop of more than three hundred thousand
bushels of fine oysters."
"He must be making a great fortune. How does it
happen that his example is not followed?"
"He reared his oysters, but he did not harvest them.
They were taken by the dredgers."
"Do you mean that they were stolen?"
"Oh, no. That is not the word to use. While he
was getting ready to gather his crop, the dredgers, who
had paid our State for licenses to take oysters, got
ahead of him and captured them."
"Were the robbers discovered and punished?"
"They were not robbers, and they were not punished.
The owner of the oysters, who knew many of
them personally, remonstrated with them, but he could
not persuade them to go away."
"What do you mean? I do not understand the
state of affairs which you describe."
"Why, you see, our people have always regarded
the oyster-beds as the property of the whole State.
They are natural wealth which has not been produced
by man, and no one person has any more right to
them than another. They belong to all the citizens of
the State in common. We all inherit a share in them
as part of our birthright as Marylanders. Our people
are therefore opposed to any system which would lead
to monopoly and would give to a few the exclusive
enjoyment of the natural advantages which belong to
all."
"That seems wise and just, but most of your citizens
have other occupations and do not wish to engage
in oystering. How do they dispose of their common
rights?"
"We have a system of licensing, and any citizen who
wishes to gather oysters on our common property
pays to the State treasury a fee for the privilege of
doing so, and in this way all the people of the State
get the benefit of our natural wealth."
"I see. All your people are enriched by the sums
paid by a few dredgers for the monopoly of the common
rights of the citizens, for this must be very great,
to judge by all you say of the value of your waters."
"No; that is hardly true, I am sorry to say. The
profits are not so great as you suppose. In fact there
are no profits at all. The dredgers themselves are not
prosperous, and they do not like to pay this tax out
of their hard earnings for the use of what they regard
as their own. Many of them would evade it if they
could, so the State is forced to maintain a navy to prevent
unlicensed dredging, and this costs more than the
total sum received for licenses."
"How is this deficiency made up—by the taxpayers
of the State?"
"Yes."
"I see. But does it not seem to you that this means
that the people of Maryland pay taxes for the privilege
of giving up their natural rights for the benefit of
a monopoly?"
"Yes, I suppose it does; but then we have the satisfaction
of knowing that we have benefited a large
class of our people, and have afforded employment for
many worthy citizens of our State."
"That is true; but I learn from the papers that
foreign emigrants are met by the agents of the dredging
captains, when they land at the wharves in New
York, and that they are then engaged for service on
the Maryland oyster-boats. How can this happen if
the right to dredge upon the public beds is so highly
prized by your people?"
"A dredger's life is very hard. The boats are
small, and when they are loaded with wet, cold, muddy
oysters there is not much room left for the crew. The
work is done in the most stormy months of the year.
The dredgers are exposed to all the hardships and
dangers of a sailor's life, and to some which are peculiar
to oystermen. The heavy dredges are hauled by
hand while the boat is under way. If they become
foul while they are being hauled in, all the weight
of the boat is thrown on to the windlass, and the
laborers, benumbed by the icy water and unable to
move quickly, are often struck by the crank. Fatal
accidents from this cause are not uncommon. Of late
years the business has not been profitable. The boats
do not pay expenses, and the owners cannot offer
tempting wages. Maryland men, who know all the
hardships of a dredger's life, are not anxious to ship
as hands on a dredging boat, so the captains are
forced to recruit their crews among men who are not
so well posted."
"Can nothing be done to improve the dredger's
life? Why do they not dredge in the summer and
keep the oysters in planting grounds until there is a
market for them?"
"The law does not permit dredging in the summer."
"Why do they not use larger vessels, and haul the
dredge by steam?"
"As the amount of the license fee depends on the
size of the boat, it is for the owner's interest to use a
small vessel and pack it as full of oysters as possible.
The use of steamboats is not allowed, and the law requires
that the dredge shall be hauled by hand."
"How does it happen that with all your natural
advantages the work is so unprofitable?"
"Our people have always been taught that our
natural beds are inexhaustible, so nothing has ever
been done to determine just how many oysters they
could furnish each year without injury, and the result
is that they have been overworked until they are so
nearly exhausted that they no longer furnish a living
for the oystermen."
"I think," said the farmer, "that I begin to understand
the situation. It seems something like this.
As the beds belong to the community, private oyster
culture has not been permitted, since it would be a
monopoly. Yet the common property of the citizens
of the State has been given up to one class of citizens
in order that they might have profitable employment.
They have not managed their trust wisely, and have
brought it so near the verge of ruin that it is no longer
attractive to Marylanders, and they have called in the
cheaper labor of foreigners. To give these foreign
laborers employment the people of the State have not
only given up their rights, but have also paid taxes for
the support of the navy. This state of things cannot
last. What do you propose to do about it?"
| CHAPTER VI. The oyster : | |