180 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



N. Y., estimates it at 30 cents per barrel. In the vicinity of Atlantic 

 City, N. J., M. A. G. Wolf gives the price at $1.25 to the thousand ; and 

 Mr. Albert Morris, of Somers Point, at 39 cents per barrel (about $1.50 

 to the thousand). Mr. Hance Lawsou, of Cresfield, Md., states that the 

 Chesapeake factories pay 15 cents per bushel.* Mr. Dudley says that 

 in 1877 the average price in the Chesapeake was 50 cents a thousand. 



Prices proportionate to amount of oil contained in fish. 



253. These prices are simply those jjaid for fish used in the manufac- 

 ture of oil and guano, the prices of those sold for bait or food being 

 given under other heads. No satisfactory conclusions can be drawn 

 from these statements, except the very general one that the fish are 

 more valuable on the eastern than on the southern coast of New En- 

 gland; in Maine bringing from $2.40 to $3.20 to the thousand; on Long 

 Island Sound, $1 to $2.25. As the expense of capture is necessarily as 

 great in Southern as in Northern waters, we must seek the reason of 

 the difference in ]»rice either in the methods of manufacture, the abun- 

 dance of the fish, or in the intrinsic value of the fish for the purposes of 

 the manufacturer. 



Oil yield of Northern fish. 



254. On the first arrival of the schools in Northern water the fish are 

 thin and do not yield a large quantity of oil ; but they rapidly gain un- 

 til the time of their departure in fall, so that the late fishing is by far 

 the most profitable. It is the general opinion of fishermen that North- 

 ern fish yield a larger proportionate amount of oil than Southern. 



Mr. Sargent, of Castine, Mc., says that three quarts of oil to the bar- 

 rel is the smallest yield he has ever known from the first school, and six 

 gallons the most from the last school. When the fish are very poor, 

 about the 1st of June, it takes 250 to make one gallon of oil ; when poor, 

 in July, 200; when fat, in August, 150; when very fat, in October, 100. 

 About one ton of scrap is obtained in making three barrels of oil. Mr. 

 Condon states that when the fish arrive in the spring they will produce 

 but one gallon to the barrel, while in October the yield is four or five 

 gallons; the average for the season being three gallons. Mr. Friend 

 states that the least yield, in June, is two quarts to the barrel; the 

 greatest, in August, four gallons. Mr. Kenniston states that May fish 

 yield three pints to the barrel; October fish, six gallons and one-half. 

 These are no doubt intended as the extreme figures. The average yield 

 is two and one-half gallons to the barrel, an estimate in which Mr. 

 Brightraan concurs, though placing the lowest at three quarts ; the 

 highest, in August and September, at four gallons. He estimates the 

 yield of a ton of scrap at thirty to forty gallons, according to the season. 

 Judson Tarr & Co. put the early fish at less than a gallon, the Septem- 

 ber fish at four gallons to the barrel. Mr. Babson thinks that the early 

 * About 50 cents per barrel, or $2 to the thousand. 



