OYSTERS. 417

Nothing in this Section shall be construed to permit or allow the catch-
ing or removing of oysters measuring less than three inches from hinge to
mouth. ¹

86. Repealed by ch. 124 of the Acts of 1927.

Packing Oysters.

An. Code, 1924, sec. 91. 1912, sec. 79. 1904, sec. 77. 1894, ch. 380, sec. 66.

1900, ch. 380. 1906, ch. 188, sec. 77. 1922, ch. 519, sec. 79.

1927, ch. 119, sec. 91.

91. It shall be unlawful for any person, firm or corporation having a
fixed place of business, buying oysters and employing labor to prepare,
them for market to engage in the business of buying, selling, marketing,
packing or canning oysters without first taking out a, license to engage in
such business by application to the Conservation Department of Maryland,
Where any such person, firm or corporation operates more than one house
for the buying, selling, marketing, packing or canning of oysters, a sepa-
rate license shall be obtained for each house in which oysters are shucked
or otherwise prepared for market; such license to be in the nature and
form of a contract between the State of Maryland and the applicant and.
shall provide for the payment of a license fee of twenty-five dollars, and
shall further provide that the licensee must turn over to the State of
Maryland at least ten per cent, of the shells from the oysters shucked in
his establishment for the current season, said shells to be removed on or
before the twentieth day of August of said season; or at the discretion of
the Conservation Department its equivalent in money, the value thereof
being determined at the market value of shells as of the first day of May
following the close of the season. The Conservation Department shall
notify each packer or canner on or before the first day of May whether it
is its intention to take the ten per centum of the shells from oysters shucked
as aforesaid, or its equivalent in money. Said license shall have effect from
the first day of September in the year in which it may have been obtained
until the twenty-fifth day of April, inclusive, next succeeding.

Act 1927, ch. 119, is constitutional. Interest to state and of individual in
oysters and fish. License fees. Discretion in conservation department. Leonard
v. Earle, 155 Md. 254 (affirmed by U. S. Supreme Court in decision filed May 13,
1929).

1927, ch. 119, sec. 91A.

91A. All moneys derived from said license fee of twenty-five dollars
shall be paid over to the Comptroller to be credited to the Conservation
Fund, and one-half of the shells received by the Conservation Department
shall be transplanted upon such natural beds or bars as may be reserved by
the Conservation Commissioner as provided for elsewhere in this Article,
and the other one-half of said shells shall be planted on such seed areas as

¹ Sec. 2 of ch. 122 of the acts of 1927 repealed all laws inconsistent therewith to
extent of inconsistency.
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