I which are probably not very different from the ones used by the man who first saw oyster and decided that it tasted like more. Also, the Chesapeake business is, from a business point of view, sadly scattered. There are no less than 150 separate and independent concerns in the business of buying and selling oysters. And they do not generally own the boats that bring them the oysters. These are the property of bay men, who get 10 cents a bushel for collecting the oysters and bringing them in. And the boat owners do not take the oysters out of the oyster. They buy them from the tongers, and these tongers are also independent operators. Each owning a little waterside property, and his hoats and tongs.
It is estimated that the oyster business of the Chesapeake Bay region supports 100,000 people, and practically all of these, except the negro shuck, are independent owners of something—an oyster house, a boat, or a long-mending outfit. And even the negro owns his freedom, for he works by piece and may come to work when he is broke and leaves when he is flush with a privilege dear to the darkey heart. Thus the oyster business of the Chesapeake Bay has been controlled and developed for the benefit of the oyster man rather than the oyster. The Northern beds have produced more pounds of oysters to the bushel, but the Chesapeake has produced more independent and moderately prosperous.  Human beings
Small Owner Protected. 