ART. 72] OYSTERS. 781.

Packing Oysters.

79.

Cited but not construed in Foote v. Claggett, 116 Md. 233.

Oyster Culture.

1906, ch. 711, sec. 83. 1914, ch. 265, *sec. 83.

85. Any resident of Maryland shall have the right to plant and
cultivate oysters in the waters of this State; such right shall be exer-
cised in the manner prescribed in the following Sections of this sub-
title, and shall be subject to the regulations, provisions and limitations
hereinafter set forth, but no corporation or joint stock company shall be
permitted to lease or take up, or to acquire by assignment, or otherwise,
any lands of the State for oyster planting or cultivation. All natural
beds or bars shall be excluded from the operation of this sub-title, and.
no person shall be permitted to plant or cultivate oysters thereupon, or
in any way to appropriate the same to his own use. The term "natural
beds or bars" wherever used in this sub-title shall hereafter be con-
strued to mean and include all oyster beds and bars under any of the
waters of this State whereon 'the natural growth of oysters is of such
abundance that the public have successfully resorted to such beds or
bars for a livelihood, whether continuously or at intervals, during any
oyster season within five years prior to the time of filing of the appli-
cation for a lease of the area in question, or if no application has been:
made for a lease of the area in question, then within five years prior-
to the making of the resurvey under Section 96A, or the filing of a.
petition under section 96B of this article, provided that the actual
condition of the area in question at any time within said respective
periods of five years or up to the date of hearing shall be taken into
consideration in determining whether or not said area is a natural bed
or bar, as above defined.

1906, ch. 711, sec. 84. 1914, ch. 265, sec. 84.

86.* The Board of Shell Fish Commissioners of Maryland is hereby
created. The said Board shall consist of three members, one of whom
shall be a resident of one of the tidewater Counties of the Eastern
Shore of Maryland, another a resident of one of the tidewater Coun-
ties of the Western Shore, and the third a resident of the City of Balti-
more, and one of whom shall be a member of the minority party at the
time of their appointment. The term of each of the members of said
Board shall be two years from the first Monday in May after his.
appointment. They shall be appointed by the Board of Public Works,
of the State of Maryland. No member of said Board of Shell Fish
Commissioners shall be or become in any manner interested in any
land leased or taken up for bedding, planting or cultivating oysters.

*The act of 1914, chapter 703, appropriates fifteen thousand dollars for the-
expenses and use of the Board of Shell Fish Commissioners.