MASSACHUSETTS: BOSTON DISTRICT. 213 



business about $75,000 capital, aiul about twenty-five men are employed. The total value of sales of 

 fishing supplies amounts to about $200,000. 



The manufacture of nets and seines is an important industry, entirely dependent ou the 

 fisheries for its support. For many years Boston has done a large business in those articles, and 

 at present has $300,000 invested in factories that give employment to seventy -one men and two 

 hundred and four women. The value of nets and seines made by these factories in 1879 was 

 $275,000. The first net factory in Boston was started in 1842, and until 1866 the work was done 

 by hand. At the latter date machines were imported, and now most of the knitting is done by 

 them. 



68. MEDFORD, BRAINTREE, AND QUINCY. 



MEDFOED. Medford is a suburban town of Boston, on the Mystic River. Its history shows 

 that it was once the seat of a quite profitable river fishery. Ten men now follow the business of 

 taking alewives in the Mystic River at a point 6 miles from its outlet into Boston Harbor. The 

 catch is small, because of the restrictions of the State law, which prohibits the use of seines or 

 gill-nets. In 1879 the total catch was 600 barrels of alewives, worth about $1,200, sold to market 

 fishermen of Boston for bait. 



BKAINTKEE AND QUINCY. The towns of Braiutree and Quincy, situated a few miles south 

 of Boston, are not now concerned in the fisheries, though in past years they attained to consid- 

 erable importance as fishing ports. An excellent review of the fishing interests of these old towns in 

 past years is given in W. S. Pattce's History of Old Braintiee and Quiucy. From this work we 

 learn that the town took action concerning its fisheries as early as 1755, and persons who engaged 

 in the cod fishery were exempted from poll tax. In 1836 the business amounted to about $30,000, 

 and employed ten vessels, that caught 6,200 quintals of cod, valued at about $18,000, and 1,750 

 barrels of mackerel, worth $12,242. About one hundred persons were employed in the industry. 

 About the year 1840 two or three whaling vessels were owned here. 



69. FISHING TOWNS FROM WEYMOUTH TO COHASSET. 



WEYMOUTH. The fishing industry of Weyuiouth is represented by one isinglass factory and 

 one factory for making fertilizers. The former, in 1879, produced 70,000 pounds of isinglass, 

 valued at $122,500. It employs forty men, and has a capital of $125,000. The latter factory 

 employs a large number of men, and has a capital of some $300,000. About one fourth of the 

 material used in making the fertilizers is fish products, received from various parts of the coast. 

 Six thousand tons of fertilizers, worth $180,000, were made in 1879. In former years this town 

 had an alewife fishery; and in 1639 the General Court granted liberty to the town "to build a weare 

 where it may not preiudice any mans p'priety." 



HULL. Hull is a little village situated in Boston Bay, at the extreme northern end of Plymouth 

 County; it is 8 miles by water from Boston, and is almost entirely surrounded by water, being 

 connected with the mainland of Nantasket by a very narrow causeway. For nearly 250 years the 

 fishing business has been followed here to a greater or less extent. At the present time the only 

 fishery receiving any attention is the lobster catch. There are 33 men engaged in this business; 

 they own 33 boats, and set 3,240 pots about the ledges of Hull and Boston Bay. These pots 

 arc set in trawls, each containing 25 of them. A few men, usually not more than half a dozen, 

 follow the business through the winter. April, May, September, and October are the best months 

 in which to prosecute this fishery. During June, July, and August the catch is not only lighter 

 but the quality of the lobsters caught is poorer, the fish at that season being, as the fishermen say, 



