752 



HISTORY AND METHODS OF THE FISHERIES. 



STATISTICS OF CAPITAL, ETC. 



We have full statistics of the capital, number of men employed, wages paid, &c., of all but 

 two of the canneries located in Oregon. The two not included are the canneries at Earner and 

 Quinn's. 



The averages of these are given in the table below. Most of the remaining canneries are 

 smaller than these here enumerated. 



The total capital of the sixteen canneries in Clatsop County, above referred to, is $733,500, or, 

 on an average. $45,844 each. An approximate estimate of the amount of capital invested in the 

 remaining thirteen canneries, or those of Washington Territory and of Columbia County, Oregon, 

 may be made by comparing their pack of salmon with that of the sixteen canneries in Clatsop 

 County. 



The average number of cases packed by the sixteen canneries is 22,256 each ; by the thirteen, 

 14,115 each. Assuming that the pack of salmon is in proportion to the capital invested, which 

 is generally true, we have $29,096 for each of the thirteen canneries, or $349,248 for the total. The 

 total amount of capital invested in the canneries on the Columbia may therefore be set down as 

 not far from $1,081,748, or say $1,100,000. 



Other statistics for the sixteen Clatsop canneries are the following, to which an addition of 

 about one-half more to each total will give an approximate total for the whole river. 



Statistics for canneries in Clatsop County, Oregon. 



PRICES OF SALMON. 



The business of canning salmon was first begun in 1863, on the Sacramento Eiver, by William 

 Hume, G. W. Hume, and A. S. Hapgood as Hapgood, Hume & Co. 



The general price, wholesale, has usually ranged from $1.50 to $2; the lowest price before 

 1878 having been $1.'J5. 



In 1878 the stock on hand was very large, and weak holders began to cut prices in order to 

 realize. The price finally fell to $1 per dozen. Nearly all the salmon in the market was bought up by 

 speculators, and the price rose to $1.40. The prices since have ranged generally from $1.10 to $1.20 



Most of the salmon canned on the Columbia is shipped directly to England. The number of 

 cases packed in 1880 (539,587) represents on an average three salmon to the case or 1,618,761 salmon. 

 Each salmon when fresh weighs about 22 pounds, a total of 35,612,742 pounds. Adding an estimate 

 for the salmon salted or consumed fresh, and we have a total of 38,500,000 pounds as an estimate of 

 the total product of the Lower Columbia for rhe year 1880. Not half a million pounds of this is 

 made of species other than the <|iiiimat salmon (Oncorhynchus chouicha). 



