THE LOBSTER FISHERY. 695 



THE AMOUNT OF PRODUCTION, STATISTICS, ETC. 



In 1880 about 2,000,000 pounds of canned lobsters, valued at $238,000, were put up on the 

 coast of Maine. These included 1,542,696 one-pound cans, 148,704 two-pound cans, and 139,801 of 

 other brands. The cost of the live lobsters used in their preparation was about $95,000, showing 

 an enhancement in value by the process of canning of $143,000. In the enumeration of the help 

 and of the wages paid at the canneries it was found impossible to make an exact calculation for 

 the lobster industry because of the other interests involved, but it can be roughly stated from the 

 combined statistics that the total number of persons employed was nearly eight hundred, and the 

 amount paid them while engaged in the preparation of canned lobsters was between $50,000 and 

 $60,000. 



At one of the canneries the cost in labor of putting up one dozen one-pound cans was calcu- 

 lated to be from 28 cents to 30 cents, which for the 2,000,000 pounds produced would make the total 

 cost about $50,000. 



The cans cost in tin and labor 25 to 30 cents per dozen, and about one-third of the total cost 

 of production of canned lobsters was expended in the labor of preparing them in the canneries. 

 Where the goods were put up by contract, 90 cents per dozen was paid, the capitalists furnish- 

 ing the cans. The selling prices, per dozen, for one-pound cans, during the past three years were 

 as follows: 1878, $1.60 ; 1879, $1.45 ; 1880, $1.45. In 1880 two-pound cans brought $2.35 per dozen. 



About one-half of the canned goods was exported to Europe, and a large part of the remain- 

 der was shipped to the Western and Southwestern States. Nearly all the canned lobsters pro- 

 duced were handled by the Portland and Boston firms already referred to, and which were as 

 follows : In Portland the Portland Packing Company, Burnham & Merrill, J. W. Jones & Co. In 

 Boston George K. Underwood & Co., W. K. Lewis & Brother. The Portland firms owned four 

 or five small vessels, which were used in carrying the cans and cases to the factories and in trans- 

 porting the canned goods to the Portland warehouses. Some of the canned goods were shipped by 

 steamer, and New York received a few supplies direct. 



No account of the total production of canned lobsters on the coast of M aine during past years 

 is at hand for comparison with the figures herewith presented, but the fact of a very great falling 

 off in the production from year to year is well known, and can be proved by the statistics of small 

 sections. It is stated that the total production of 1880 was greatly exceeded ten years ago by 

 that of a few canneries, and one of the principal reasons given for the transfer of capital to the 

 British Provinces was the decrease of supplies on the coast of Maine. The question of decrease 

 has been elsewhere discussed, and it is but fair to assume that the canneries have suffered in com- 

 mon with other branches of the industry. The increased traffic in fresh lobsters at some places, 

 as at Eastport, has greatly interfered with the canning interests, and the canneries at that place 

 are now run merely for the purpose of using up the small lobsters that could not be marketed 

 otherwise. The decreased production since 1878 has been very largely due to the shortening 

 of the canning season by the State law that came into force in 1879. 



Further statistics of the canning industry are given in connection with the Coast Review of 

 this fishery. 



