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3HT 00453
2
After being fu^ly convinced thpt the use of the dredee vould result in benefit rather than harm to the oyster reefs, we purchased a number of small dredges for use on small vessels, at an expense of several hundred dollars, and tried to pet some of those from vhom ve buy oysters to use them, but they were not disposed to try a nev method vhich vhich they vere unacquainted and vould not use them.
V/'e still have the dredges, vhich ve have slvays been villing to turn ov°r to any one vho vould use them.
Vie then had built a steam Dredge-Boat at an expense of about $10,000 for fishing in deep vater, where the oyster can not be successfully fished vith tongs and where there are today millions and millions of barrels of oysters vhich are practically of no use to anyone for the reason that they are in vater too deep to be worked vith tongs, and ve are not allowed to get them with a Dredge. Had ve been permitted to use this boat ve vould have teen able to run probably one day more in the veek than ve vill be able to run vithout it, and would still have been compelled to let our machinery lie idle from one to tvo days in the veek, after buying oysters from boats, just as ve have done heretofore.
On account of the prevailing, but erroneous opinion, that the use of the dredge is deleterious to the oyster reefs, a petition vas numerously signed and presented to the Board of Supervisors asking them to pass an ordinance to prevent dredging in the vaters of Harrison County, vhich vas done, although ve stated to the Board that ve only vanted to fish in deep vater and asked them to so frame their ordiance that ve vould be able to fish in water vhere the tongs can not be successfully used.
We do not impute any but honest motives to the Eoard of Superviso nor the gentlemen vho signed the petition, but they made a mistake vhich, unless remedied, vill cause as great loss, as veil as those vho look to our factories for a means of support, and vill very materially retard the most important industry on the Gulf Coast.
In support of the facts ve have set out, ve vill state that in all of the States vhere the oyster industry has assumed proportions of any importance the lavs heretofore in existence, prohibiting the use of the Dredge, have been repealed or modified so that there are today in use in	the public	vaters	of the	United
States 8,396 Dredges, vhile their	use is not	prohibited in	any State
vhere the industry is as important as in Mississippi.
It has been contended by some that the use of dredges vould vork to the detriment of those vho fish oysters for a living, but this is also a mistake. If allowed to dredge, ve vould still vant all the oysters ve could buy, for	ss ve said	in the	outset	ve have
never been able to set enough rav	oysters to	run on	more than half
time, vhile the amount of oysters caught vith the dredge could not offset the price ve pay for raw oysters is governed by the price ve get for canned goods; besides the amount of oyster output in the United States is $15,000,000--vhile all. the factories on the coast do not pay in any one	year	more	than SlOO non
oysters ve would t.k.	with	tM.	r, .	W,00°	oyst«M- The	f«v
--Pert?	Uh	lMs	*•••• vo»M be	a	^,.r. „„„ in