66 NEW ENGLAND FISHERIES 



all unmerchantable, all sun-burnt, salt-burnt and dry-fish 

 that hath first been pickled, to be paid one-half by the 

 dealer, the other half by the receiver. ' ' l Codfish, had- 

 dock, hake and pollock could not be killed during the 

 months of December and January, because that was their 

 spawning time. For the same reason, mackerel could not 

 be taken before the month of July. Tortugas salt was 

 condemned as being injurious to the best quality of cured 

 fish. 



By a noteworthy act the Plymouth Company, in 1670, 

 granted all profits that should accrue annually from the 

 fisheries at Cape Cod for mackerel, bass or herring to be 

 employed "for and towards a free school in some town 

 of this jurisdiction/ The next year such a school was 

 opened in the colony with John Morton as teacher. The 

 school was maintained until 1677 when more liberal pro- 

 visions were made for the support of other grammar schools 

 in the colony. 2 For the seven years subsequent to 1677, 

 the Cape Cod fisheries were rented at the rate of 30 per 

 annum; the most of the income was granted to a school 

 at Duxbury, to one at Plymouth, and to others elsewhere 

 in the colony. Instances are found, also, where a part of 

 the fund was expended in helping widows and orphans 

 of men formerly engaged in the service of the colony. 3 



In 1673, Massachusetts found it necessary to pass laws 

 regulating the packing of sturgeon for shipment. Hereto- 

 fore, the fish had been packed in casks and kegs that 

 proved unserviceable. By the new regulation, packers of 

 the fish had to become licensed by the county courts; per- 

 sons who examined and marked the casks as packed were 

 bound by the same regulation. During the same year the 



1 Marvin, American Merchant Marine, p. 286. 



2 Plymouth Colonial Records, V, p. 108. 



3 Mass. Historical Society Collections, 2nd series, III, pp. 117, 

 220, 259. 



