county waters. This county has 75 square miles of water area and 380
square miles of agricultural lands. In 1925 the oyster production was
111,107 bushels. In 1931 it had increased to 300,090 bushels. The
figures for the crab industry are even more spectacular. In 1925 about
1,200 barrels of hard crabs were marketed from these waters, whereas
in 1931 the records show 23,094 barrels. Soft crab shipments in 1925
were negligible; in 1931, 203,268 soft crabs were marketed.

According to the Seafood Auditor's statistics gathered for the year
1931, there were 66,633,829 pounds of seafood of all kinds: fish, oysters,
crabs, clams, etc., marketed from the waters of Maryland during that
year, the value of which is estimated at $2,706,832. The fisherman en-
gaged in taking these seafoods from the waters total 9,558, and in addi-
tion this industry gives employment to 7,712 persons who pack and
prepare the water products for market. These people receive $1,708,958
for their share of the work. Based on these figures, the Conservation
Commissioner assesses the value of these "meadow lands" of the Chesa-
peake to the State of Maryland at $45,000.000. The State possesses few
if any other single resource that surpasses its water crop.

The Oyster Industry

Due to the lack of demand for all commodities and a general over-
production of foods, the oyster interests found difficulty in marketing
the crop from our waters. Therefore the production for the 1932-33
season failed to show the increase that was anticipated from the supply
of oysters on the bottom. Oysters, fortunately, unlike agricultural
crops, which must be harvested at a given time, can remain on the bot-
toms until the demand increases and be the better for the additional
period of growth.

The Conservation Department found it advisable to move young
oysters from certain bars where they were overcrowded to other areas
where they would have a better opportunity to mature. This was carried
out on Hodges Bar, where some 8,000 bushels of oysters were success-
fully transferred to Love Point for the better growing conditions there
afforded. Another transfer of 10,000 bushels of oysters from the shoal
water bars of the St. George's river, Potomac section, where they were
in danger of destruction from exposure at low tide in severe winter
weather, were removed to the safety of deeper water.

In addition to these transfers of oysters, the Department completed
the most successful season since the inauguration of its shell replacement
policy in 1929 by the placing overboard on selected natural oyster bars
of 1,325,515 bushels of shells. This brings the total of shells put back
on the depleted rocks of Chesapeake Bay and tributaries to 3,806,522
bushels. From every section of tidewater Maryland the Department is
now receiving the fullest co-operation in its shell planting program, as
the watermen and packing interest alike see the necessity for and benefits
of this work.

Chesapeake Biological Laboratory

One of the most important events in the Department's activities dur-
ing the past year was the formal opening and beginning of operations
at the Chesapeake Biological Laboratory. The dedication of the new
building took place on July 19th, and a very interesting group of in-
structors from several colleges and universities of the State were assem-
bled for the first season's work, which was largely in the nature of an
experiment. The following institutions are taking part again in the
second season's work: Johns Hopkins University, St. John's College, the
University of Maryland, Goucher, Washington and Western Maryland
College B.