THE LOBSTER FISHERY. 693 



cans are allowed to cot.] over night, are tested to insure their being tight, and are then scoured, 

 painted, and labeled. In packing them in the rases, each can is wrapped in brown paper. 



One cannery, that at Oceanville, has used steam for cooking the lobsters, instead of boiling 

 them in water. The lobsters arc steamed about thirty -five minutes, but it appears to dry the meat 

 too much, and in 1870 it was proposed to abandon that process. 



llELr. The help employed at the canneries consists of men, girls, and boys, whose labor is 

 well systematized. The men attend to the heavier kinds of work and to those details which 

 require the greatest skill, while the picking out and washing of the. meat, the tilling, weighing, 

 scouring, painting and labeling of the cans is generally done by the girls. Great dexterity is often 

 attained in the different branches of the business, and experienced hands work with astonishing 

 rapidity. In the larger canneries, where the methods of work are most perfect, the help is classi- 

 fied more or less in the following manner: Superintendent or foreman, boilers, crackers, breakers, 

 sealers, bathmen, tail pickers or shelters, arm-pickers, tillers, crowders, weighers, coverers, can- 

 wipers, boxers, &c. In most of the canneries, however, but few of these designations are com- 

 monly used, and in the smaller ones the same persons may perform several kinds of work. Next 

 under the superintendent or foreman, the sealers are supposed to be the most skillful of the help 

 employed, and they generally have to make the cans as well as seal them. The boilers, breakers, 

 crackers, and bathmen are generally all men and sometimes also the tail-pickers and weighers. 



A few examples will serve to illustrate the character and amount of help employed at the 

 larger canneries. At the Oceauville cannery, in 1880, eleven men and sixteen girls were employed. 

 Of men there were one superintendent, one boiler, six breakers and crackers, two sealers, and one 

 bathmau ; and of girls, five arm-pickers, four tail-pickers, three fillers, one crowder, one weigher, 

 one can-wiper, and one coverer. The cans were painted, labeled, and put in the cases by giris, 

 while the nailing and stenciling of the boxes was done by the sealers. At the Carver's Harbor 

 cannery there were eighteen men and sixteen girls; the men consisting of a superintendent, one 

 foreman, two boilers, one bathman, four crackers, two breakers, two tail shelters, one weigher, 

 three sealers, and one boxer. At the Boothbay cannery fifteen men and ten girls were employed. 

 Of men, there were, in addition to the superintendent, boiler, and bathmau, two crackers, two 

 breakers, three sealers, two tail -shelters and three arm-pickers; of girls, one weigher and one 

 coverer, and an average of five men and girls engaged in picking arms, two men in shelling tails, 

 and two girls cleaning. 



The average number of hands at each of the Maine factories owned in Portland was esti- 

 mated as follows, for 1880 : The Portland Packing Company, twenty to twenty-five girls and boys 

 and eleven men, while fifty men were employed for four mouths making cans for all their factories; 

 Bnrnham & Mori-ill, twelve girls and boys and eleven men ; J. W. Jones, twenty-five hands, of 

 which one-half are girls and boys. The number employed at the several canneries varies some- 

 what at different seasons. The help is mostly obtained in the neighborhood of the canneries, but 

 some of the more skillful hands, such as the sealers, come from Portland or elsewhere. The men 

 generally begin their labors somewhat earlier in the morning than the girls, as they have to pre- 

 pare or lay out the work. 



WAGES. The men are paid much higher wages than the girls and boys, and the rates vary 

 at the different canneries and somewhat with the seasons. The girls receive from $3 to $4 a 

 week, their wages being more uniform than those of the men, who are paid from $G to $15 a week, 

 excepting the superintendent. The sealers or solderers have from $!) to $15 a week ; the weighers 

 and boxers, about $10.50; the boilers and bathmen from $7.50 to $10; the crackers, breakers, and 

 tail-shellers, from $0 to $0. 



