ALBERT C. RITCHIE, GOVERNOR. 163

WHEREAS the demand for oysters is constantly increasing
and the oyster bars and rocks of Chesapeake Bay and its trib-
utaries are showing such great depletion that constructive legis-
lation is necessary to preserve and rehabilitate such depleted
areas, and,

WHEREAS a Seafood Committee, consisting of representa-
tives from each tidewater county, was appointed by Governor
Albert C. Ritchie, to investigate and recommend remedial leg-
islation to increase the oyster supply of Maryland, among
which was the recommendation that the State should reserve
ten per cent of all shells made by the oyster packing houses
to be planted upon reserved and seed areas; therefore:

SECTION 1. Be it enacted by the General Assembly of
Maryland, That Section 91 of Article 72 of the Code of Public
General Laws of Maryland, title "Oysters, " sub-title "Packing
Oysters, " providing for licensing of oyster packers be and is
hereby repealed and re-enacted with amendments, to read as
follows:

91. It shall be unlawful for any person, firm or corpora-
tion having a fixed place of business, buying oysters and em-
ploying 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 oper-
ates more than one house for the buying, selling, marketing,
packing or canning of oysters, a separate license shall be ob-
tained for each house in which oysters are shucked or other-
wise prepared for market; such license to be in the nature and
form of a contract between the State of Maryland and the ap-
plicant 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 can-
ner on or before the said first day of May whether it is its inten-