ECONOMIC VALUE OF THE ALEWIFE. 587 



out of the water after June 1, will doubtless have a very important effect in keeping up the supply 

 of Alewives in the Potomac. 



SIZE. According to the ordinary mode of estimating the weight of Kiver Herring in the 

 Potomac three make a pound, and the maximum weight per individual does not exceed half a 

 pound. 



USES. The Herrings, or Alewives, taken in the great fisheries of the South, are almost 

 without exception salted for local consumption, though early in the season they are shipped fresh 

 from the Albemarle region to Philadelphia, New York, and Baltimore, and are .sold in the 

 markets at a low price. There is of course a considerable consumption in the fresh state in the 

 region of the fisheries, immense quantities being taken by peddlers and carried by wagons inland 

 from the rivers of the South, as well as from the Hudson, Connecticut, and smaller rivers of 

 Massachusetts. Great numbers are smoked in North Carolina for local consumption; in fact, 

 almost all which are used in the vicinity of the fisheries are taken out of the brine (after having 

 been saturated with the salt, or "struck" or "corned") and hung up for a few days in the smoke- 

 houses belonging to the purchasers who intend them for their own use. 



When intended for shipment into the interior they are treated in several ways: (/) They may 

 lie taken out of the first pickle and packed in dry salt; in that case they are called " salt Herring." 

 (H) The roc Alewives may be selected, the heads and entrails removed and salted down in dry .wilt 

 and sent to market as roe Alewives, of which there are several grades. (Hi) They may be packed 

 as split Alewives. In this operation the heads and entrails are removed by a single cut and twist 

 of the knife, with surprising rapidity and packed in dry salt, or smoked. The heading and 

 evisceration are done by a single stroke, and an expert operator will prepare forty to fifty per 

 minute. This work is done by negro women. In Washington a superior brand of smoked 

 Alewives is prepared and sold as "Potomac Eoe Herring." These are highly esteemed by judges 

 of smoked fish, and command a price of three or four cents each in the city markets. .They are 

 equal to the finest Labrador lien ing. Small quantities are prepared after the German fashion 

 Buckling. 



In conclusion, we quote from Professor Baird's second report as Commissioner of Fisheries 

 the following remarks upon the uses and importance of this fish: 



"I am inclined to think, for various reasons, that too little has been done in our waters 

 towards the restoration to their primitive abundance of the Alewife (Pomolobus merliocris), the 

 Herring of our Southern and Middle States, not to be confounded with the sea Herring (Clupca 

 elongata). 



"The Alewife in many respects is superior, in commercial and economical value, to the Her- 

 ring, being a much larger and sweeter fish, and more like the true Shad in this respect. Of all 

 American fish none are so easily propagated as the Alewife, and waters from which it has been 

 driven by the erection of impassable dams can be fully restocked in the course of a few years, 

 simply by transporting a snfh'cient number of the mature fish taken at the mouth of the stream to 

 a point above the. dams, or placing them in ponds or lakes. Here they will spawn and return to 

 the sea after a short interval, making their way over dams which carry any How. The young 

 Alewives, after a season, descend, and return, if not prevented, at the end of their period of imma- 

 turity, to the place where they were spawned. 



"In addition to the value of the Alewife as an article of food, it is of much service in ponds 

 and rivers as nutriment for trout, salmon, and other valuable fishes. The young derive their sus- 

 teuance from minute crustaceans and other objects too diminutive for the larger fish, and in their 

 great abundance are greedily devoured by the other species around them. In waters inhabited 



