HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN MENHADEN. 423 



time in the spring and fall, but the main part of their season is off the 

 coast of Maine. 



42. Most of the fish caught by the above gangs are manufactured into 

 oil and fish guano ; some are used for bait and some are used for maiiure 

 just as they are taken from the water. But during the year 1873 there 

 was but few of those caughr in Narragansett Bay used for bait, because 

 the Gloucester and Proviucetown fishermen catch them with their own 

 seines. 



43. Job T. Wilson, Leonard Brightman & Son, Wm. J. Brightman 

 & Co., iSarragansett Oil and Guano Co., Thomas Duuovan, Thomas 

 Durfee, Benjamin H. Gray, Otis Almy & Co., Chas. Cook & Co., Chas. 

 O. Wilcox, Atlantic Oil and Guano Co. are the principal manufacturers 

 on Narragansett Bay. The abov^e list comprises all there are in the bay. 

 Job T. Wilson owns three and Leonard Brightman owns two factories. 



44. If my estimate is correct under question four, 160,000 barrels, at 

 the usual estimate of 3 tons to the one hundred barrels, would give the 

 amount of guano 4,800 tons, and the oil, at the rate of IJ gallons of oil 

 to the barrel, would give the product of oil for this bay at 240,000 gallons. 



45. I should think the average pi oductive capacity of our oil factories 

 to be about six hundred barrels each; as I figure it some will manufac- 

 ture one thousand barrels each day, and some will not manufacture more 

 than two hundred barrels per day. The i)roductive capacity for each 

 year is immense, but the amount of fish limits it to what the figures be- 

 fore given will give. If all the factories had all the fish day by day that 

 they wished, and could run from one end of the season to the other, their 

 product would flood the world, but there are so many set-backs, such as 

 bad weather, sharks, bluefish, that these fishermen get discouraged and 

 go at other work. Take it all in all, there is no business on earth more 

 uncertain than menhaden oil business. 



40. Hydraulic power is mostly used in pressing oil and water from 

 fish. Steam is used mostly in preparing the fish for the press, and also 

 the oil is prepared by steam for market by a process not generally known. 

 A hydraulic press costs about $12. A factory, complete, ready for busi- 

 ness, including buildings, tanks, boilers, oil run, &c., of a capacity to 

 take and press 800 barrels in one day, costs not far from $14,000. 



47. Fish per barrel on Narragansett Bay was, during the year 1873, 

 about 40 cents ; in 1863, during the summer, $1 per barrel; and once 

 within ten years they were $2.50 per barrel. On the coast of Maine the 

 price paid lor fish during the year 1873 was about 72 cents ; the old 

 price used to be $1, but the low price of oil and guano for the last few 

 years has caused them to fall, and the year 1873 has been disastrous 

 for most of the manufacturers on the coast of Maine. 



48. In 1871 fish averaged on the coast of Maine 3i gallons per barrel; 

 in ±872 they averaged 2f per barrel ; in 1873 they averaged about 3 gal- 

 lons ; the average is more uniform in Maine than on Narragansett Bay 

 or in Long Island Sound. 



