The oyster trade has now increased to immense propor-
tions. It is much to be regretted that no reliable data, ac-
cessible to me at this time, furnish even a proximate estimate,
of its extended ramifications and results. Its value to the
State of Maryland may be interred, however, from the Opera-
tions of the leading houses engaged in this business in the
City of Baltimore. It is fair to assume that eight-tenths of
the oysters taken from the Chesapeake Bay find a market in
other States, and not one—third of this immense trade makes
any return to the public treasury. The entire amount of re-
venue derived from this source, since the passage of the law,
will not exceed $36,000.
A prompt. modification of the existing Act is imperatively
called for, not only as a measure of justice to the State trea-
sury, but to our own citizens, who ale placed at disadvant- t—
age in competition with those who intrude themselves, with—
out license or authority, into our waters. I would recom-
mend the immediate appointment of an officer, whose duty it
shall be to exercise a vigilant supervision over this huge and
daily increasing trade, with the control of a revenue steamer,
properly equipped, to be employed under his direction, , when-
ever it may be required, to examine the permits of all vessels
engaged in the oyster trade within the jurisdiction of the
State of Maryland, and the imposition of the heaviest penal-
ties upon all pci-sons violating the laws of the State. I would
suggest, also, that any expense glowing out of the proposed
change, be provided by a tax upon the trade, and from fines
and confiscations, collected in the strict enforcement of such
law as the Legislature may enact.
ENCOURAGEMENT TO IMMIGRATION.

The liberal encouragement of our agricultural interests,
in view of the inconvenience resulting from the change in
our system of labor, will commend itself to your special
attention. The majority ef our people live by the pursuits
of agriculture; and these have depended for development
heretofore upon slave labor. The prompt emancipation of
the negro race, and the withdrawal of a large class of this
population, to do duty in another sphere, render it import-
ant that some action should be taken to avert the conse-
quences attending thus change, already seriously felt, in
many parts of the State. Measures have been adopted in
some of the States to supply the wants of the people, by the
introduction of emigrant labor from abroad. No State will
need an effort in this direction more than our own. A bill
looking to this object failed to meet your sanction at the
last session of your honorable body. It has seemed to me
that the only effective mode of inviting emigrants to our
State will be to satisfy them of its facilities for the profita