Oyster Farming for North Carolina
[Written by Professor W. K. Brooks, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, upon request of S. G. Worth, to be read before Fishermen's Convention, at Raleigh, October 13, 1884.]
From very early times the cultivation of the land has been recognized as one of the most proper fields for private industry, and an extensive area of productive land in the hands of private owners and under thorough cultivation, is the most convincing evidence of permanent prosperity which a State can exhibit.
I suppose that no one of my hearers doubts this, but a little thought will show you that the whole world does not agree with you. There are men living to-day in our country, who are bitterly opposed to all agriculture, and who believe that the country should be preserved in its natural state as a public hunting ground, and nothing but armed force restrains them from asserting their opinions by the murder of the farmers who have trespassed upon their rights.
Much as we may sympathize with the hardships of the uncivilized Indians, we all know that they must either change their opinions or die. There is no room in this country for an unproductive race.
The natural resources of the earth are sufficient for a scanty population of savages, but we might as well try to supply the demand for horses in our cities and farming regions by catching colts on our prairies, as to hope to support a civilized human population upon the natural products of the uncultivated earth.
We all recognize that this is true of the lands out of the water, but many people believe that it is not true of the lands under the water. Private industry can do very little to increase the supply of migratory sea fishes, and it is therefore obvious that no one person should be permitted to monopolize the supply which belongs to the whole people.
Now does this hold true of the oysters? It is true that the natural resources of the State belong to the whole people, but an oyster is as stationary as a potato, and if it is true that private industry can promote the wealth and prosperity of the State by the cultivation of the oyster grounds, public rights must give way, just as the public rights to the lands above water have given way, for the good of the public as a whole, before private agriculture.
In order to show you that private oyster culture is possible, and that it would, like agriculture, bring wealth and prosperity to the State, and would greatly increase population and taxable real estate, I wish to call your attention to a few facts regarding the value of cultivated oyster grounds, as compared with the natural facts.
Five years ago the system of private oyster farming was introduced into the State of Connecticut. Previously to this time the Connecticut oyster planters were compelled to obtain more than half a million bushels of seed oysters which are needed by the Connecticut planters, as well as those of Massachusetts and Rhode Island. Most of the seed oysters planted in New York and New Jersey are now purchased from the Connecticut farms, and, in addition to this, one firm in 1883 shipped to San Francisco fifteen million seed oysters which had been reared upon a private farm.
The State of Maryland has more than 640,000 acres of oyster ground, which is managed by the State, and from this area the fishermen obtain about $2,000,000 a year. In France a crop valued at $8,000,000 was raised in three years from a farm of less than 500 acres, where there were no natural oysters.
The State of Virginia has more than 1,000,000 acres of oyster ground, yet a Connecticut farmer states that the annual crop from his farm is now equal to one-third that of Virginia.
In 1879 there were in Rhode Island 962 acres of oyster ground under a very imperfect system of cultivation, yet the oysters were sold for $680,500. If the oyster grounds of Maryland were used to no better advantage they would yield $550,000,000 a year, instead of the $2,000,000 which the fishermen now obtain from them.
So much for the return to the individual. Now a word about the advantage to the State. The oyster grounds of Maryland give employment, for a few months in a year, to about 50,000 fishermen. If they were thoroughly cultivated they would give profitable employment to more than 500,000 people for the whole year.
Besides the great advantage to the State which comes from the wealth and prosperity of its people, oyster cultivation may be made to contribute to the public revenues by direct taxation.
The revenue of the State of Maryland, from 640,000 acres of uncultivated oyster ground, for the five years from 1878 to 1888, was $210,000, or about $40,000 a year, but the expense of collecting it was nearly $218,000, or more than $9,000 in excess of the receipts.
In 1883 the revenue of Rhode Island from 1,100 acres of cultivated oyster grounds was $11,000, and on the same basis the annual revenue of Maryland should be more than $6,000,000.
These facts will, I trust, be sufficient to show to every one the great advantages of oyster culture, and the subject should have an especial importance at this time to all public-spirited citizens of North Carolina.
The near-sighted policy which the States of Maryland and Virginia have pursued is rapidly leading to the extermination of their natural supply, and the demand for oysters from all parts of our rapidly growing country must be met in some way.
The clear-headed citizens of Connecticut have discovered this, and they are rapidly developing a system of private oyster culture with very remarkable success, but their climate is unfavorable, and oysters in shallow water are often destroyed by starfish and other enemies which are much less dangerous in our own land-locked and brackish waters than they are in Long Island Sound.
If the people of Maryland and Virginia would adopt laws for the encouragement of oyster farming, they might draw into their State the energetic men and the millions of dollars of capital which are now engaged in this business in Connecticut.
Unfortunately there is, in each of these States, a large and influential body of fishermen, who have always made their living by fishing upon the public beds, and these were all bitterly opposed to any system of private cultivation so long as the natural beds are not entirely destroyed.
Before this happens the Connecticut farmers will have obtained control of the market, unless they shall have been drawn to North Carolina by the advantages of a warmer climate, the absence of marine enemies to the oyster, and the much more rapid growth of the oyster in Southern waters.
Here, then is the opportunity of North Carolina. In her great land-locked shallow sounds and tidal rivers there is a great undeveloped source of wealth, which can be made to support hundreds of thousands of people. I am unable, in the absence of exact survey, to state just how large the territory is which is favorable for oyster farming, but it is certainly not much less than a million acres, and the possible revenue from this source is so great as to seem almost fabulous; but I wish to call your attention once more to the fact that the Rhode Island oyster grounds yield on the average $700 per acre each year.
This great source of wealth cannot be much productive without the investment of a large capital. The establishment of any oyster farm itself requires capital, and in addition to this, there must be a town with ice-houses and canning and packing establishments, and there must also be means of rapid communication with the centers of oyster consumption before the natural advantages of North Carolina can be made available.
I therefore wish to impress upon you the fact that now is the opportunity which may never occur again.
Between the destruction of the natural beds of the Chesapeake Bay and the establishment of a great oyster industry in Long Island Sound, North Carolina can by wise action do much to draw the business into her own favored waters.
I, myself, am a student rather than a practical business man, and I therefore make no suggestions as to the manner in which this may be accomplished.
For several months in each year, for several years past, I have been a citizen of North Carolina, and I have, therefore been much pleased to have this opportunity to point out to the people of the State that the times are now especially favorable for developing the great resources of their seacoast, but I must leave to men who are more versed in public affairs the task of devising how this shall be brought about.
I had intended to take this opportunity to say a few words upon the manner of the establishing and conducting an oyster farm, but as I learn that Lieut. Francis Winslow, U. S. N., one of the highest authorities upon this subject, is to address you, it will not be necessary for me to consume time which he will supply to much better advantage.