NOTES ON THE CONSTRUCTION AND APPLICATION OF FISH NETS. 387 



Previous to 1840 it had not occurred to anyone apparently to supply the fishermen 

 with ready-made nets. In the twelve months of the present year the netting manu- 

 facturer whose business extends through all the fishing districts will have been called 

 upon to supply more than three hundred distinct varieties of netting; that is, as many 

 kinds as can be made up by the use of every conceivable size of mesh, duplicated in 

 from two to thirty different sizes of twine. 



More than thirty sizes of mesh and forty kinds and sizes of twine are required for 

 the gill-net fisheries alone, the meshes varying from If inches (extended measurement) 

 to 13 inches, and the twines from the size of a single horsehair to 36- thread cotton, 

 which is nearly one-eighth inch in diameter. Of the great variety in sizes and twines 

 referred to, all but a few are made of cotton, no hemp twine being used in our fisheries, 

 and linen only where the yarn must be spun to extreme fineness, as in the gill-net fish- 

 eries of the Great Lakes. 



The substitution of cotton for hemp twines in the American fisheries was a matter 

 of very considerable importance, for its results were far-reaching, affecting the great 

 fisheries of European countries hardly less than those of our own. The incident which 

 led to this important step is here related: 



Some time in the year 1844 a fisherman, known to history as Mr. McCarthy, whiling 

 away an idle hour at a small store in Boston, where he bought his fishery supplies, 

 expressed an opinion that somebody in this country might turn an honest penny by 

 getting up a twine especially designed for nets, and better adapted to the purpose 

 than the imported hemp twine then used. This proposition was discussed in the 

 presence of Mr. James S. Shepard, who was then engaged in the manufacture of 

 cotton yarns at Canton, Mass., and he very soon afterward submitted to Mr. McCarthy, 

 the fisherman, a cotton twine which the latter made into gill nets and submitted in 

 turn to the herring family of fishes for a final verdict. It was pronounced a satisfac- 

 tory twine by Mr. McCarthy and was at once adopted by the fishermen, but candor 

 compels us to say that the fisherman of the present day would not accept it as a gift. 

 The best that can be said of it is that it was an improvement upon the hemp twine. 



Soon afterward the popularity of cotton twines for both gill-net and seine fishing 

 induced Mr. Shepard to devote his whole time to their manufacture and improve- 

 ment. The product of his factory w T as taken by the proprietors of the store we have 

 alluded to, who for some years had been supplying fishermen in a small way with nets 

 made by hand knitters in and around Boston. This concern was the nucleus of the 

 present American Net and Twine Company, and included Mr. Shepard in its member- 

 ship a few years after the events narrated. 



Aside from the introduction of the new twines, methods of manufacture did not 

 undergo any considerable change for some years. Seines and gill nets continued to 

 be the chief forms of apparatus, and the netting was made by hand, men, women, and 

 girls being employed to do the work. The variety and sizes of twine and mesh were 

 very small. The fishing industry was attaining considerable proportions, however, 

 and the use of cotton twines stimulated a demand for them which induced other yarn 

 manufacturers to engage in their production. 



In the year 1855 the net and twine company referred to imported the first netting 

 machine used in this country. It was a hand-power Scotch machine, the only kind 

 then in existence. The Scotch machine was not then, and, we believe, it never has 

 been adapted to the manufacture of heavy netting, so that atter its importation all 

 netting except that composed of fine twines continued to be made by hand. For light 



