reorganized in the 1959 session of this body. At its first meeting last
June 1, the new Commission initiated a series of conferences in Tide-
water counties, the purpose of which was to obtain from the broad
experiences of the watermen themselves all possible ideas, critical
comments and suggestions to aid the Department in planning for
the future.

Incidentally, I had suggested years before I became Governor that
it would be well for this State agency to make frequent visits to sea-
food localities and get first-hand information about the problems
of the watermen and the industry. I am happy to see this suggestion
carried out.

Perhaps the most significant advancement that his been made by
this Department is a change in its objective—from being primarily
a law enforcement agency to emphasis on the function of rehabili-
tating the resources of the Chesapeake Bay, its tributaries and our
ocean territorial waters. From all indications, the Department has
found a solution to the long-time need for adequate quantities of
shells for large-scale planting. This, I believe, is the key to the re-
habilitation of the oyster industry. I have asked for an additional ap-
propriation in the 1960-1961 budget to finance this operation.

The magnitude of the problems of this Department is well known
to all of us. Maryland has great water resources, but it is no secret
that we have not husbanded and developed these gifts of nature as
well as we should have. The program the Department has formulated
will, in my opinion, go a long way toward restoring the depleted re-
sources of the Bay and other waters of our tidal region.

I have discussed up to now our efforts to improve the government
and to better the services it renders to the people through the revision
of existing agencies and the establishment of new ones. With the same
objective in mind, we have employed other measures in other agencies
and in other areas of activity.

The care and treatment of the unfortunate victims of mental ill-
nesses is a matter of grave concern to all of us. It is a deep satisfaction
to me to be able to report a continuing decline in the patient popu-
lation of our mental hospitals, due to the better care they are re-
ceiving as a result of additional personnel in medical and supporting
services and to the use of new drugs, both of which have reduced the
length of patient confinement. With fewer patients, we will be able
to give those remaining better treatment, and you will see in the
budget which I am presenting additional appropriation to raise the

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