292 MARINE FISHERIES OF NORTH CAROLINA 



parts of it. Further details of the manipulative procedure and tests of validity 

 of what was done are given in the statistical section. 



Although the actual statistical record begins in 1880 and extends to 1945, 

 the data prior to 1887 were found to be of unsatisfactory comparability with 

 those of subsequent years. It was decided to end the study with 1940, not 

 only because of the impact of war-time price regulations and black markets, 

 but also because data of a general nature for comparative purposes were 

 obtained from the Census, the last one of which was in 1940. During the First 

 World War the field data are too sparse to be of much use even by interpola- 

 tion. It is therefore unfortunate that the economic behavior of the fisheries in 

 the upheavals of war are not presentable. The period 188 7- 1940 is considered 

 adequate to the purposes of this study in the search for the behavior pattern 

 and determinants rather than for the appraisal of the immediate economic 

 position of the fisheries. 



Field data of North Carolina in the coastal region were collected by Mr. 

 Josiah W. Bailey, Jr., and in the interior by Dr. C. A. Kirkpatrick; consumer 

 market studies were made in Greensboro by Miss Margaret Edwards, Home 

 Economics Department, The Woman's College, Greensboro, assisted by Miss 

 Evelyn Sharpe; in Greenville by Mrs. A. E. Bloxton, East Carolina Teachers 

 College; in Raleigh by Miss Ellen Brewer of Meredith College. Miss Mavis 

 W. Gibbs generously cooperated with Dr. Kirkpatrick in furnishing him 

 information on the marketing of fish in North Carolina, and Professor Dudley 

 J. Cowden and Mr. Warren W. Webb computed the effective buying income 

 of the coastal counties for 1939. Miss Minerva C. Billard, in addition to 

 t5^ing the manuscript and the voluminous statistical tables, performed much 

 of the tedious work of their compilation and calculation and of proofreading 

 the manuscript. To all of these grateful acknowledgment for their generous 

 assistance is here made. 



