OYSTERS. 919

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 clay 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.

Constitutionality of secs. 91 and 91A affirmed by U. S. Supreme Court. Leon-
ard v. Earle, 279 U. S. 392.

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 Commission as provided for elsewhere in this Article,
and the other one-half of said shells shall be planted on such seed areas as
may be set aside by the Conservation Commission for seed oysters. In
case money is paid in lieu of the ten per cent of shells, the Conservation
Commission shall convert same into shells or seed oysters to be trans-
planted in like manner. ¹
See notes to sec. 91.

Comptroller's Duties.

An. Code, 1924. sec. 96. 1912. sec. 83. 1904. sec. 81. 1894, ch. 380, sec. 68.

1931. ch. 469.

96. It shall be the duty of the Comptroller to furnish the clerks of the
several courts of the State with forms of applications and license and of
the reports or returns required by the preceding sections; and it shall be
the further duty of the Comptroller to furnish all other blanks required
under this Article. ²

Oyster Culture.

1933. ch 302.

98A. It shall be unlawful to plant, cultivate, or introduce into any of
the waters of the State any species of oyster whatever, except the species
Ostrea virginica. Any person violating the provisions of this section shall

¹ Sec. 3 of ch. 119 of acts of 1927 repealed all laws inconsistent therewith to extent
of such inconsistency.

² Sec. 2 of ch. 469, acts of 1931, provides: "That this act shall take effect upon the
sale by the Board of Public Works of the first $125, 000. 00 of the certificates of in-
debtedness authorized by the act of the General Assembly of 1931 creating the
"Ocean City Inlet Loan of 1931. "