274 BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF FISHERIES, 
But this was a wasteful and ultimately injurious process if continuously 
applied, because the oil in the fish was not only lost but in time seriously dam- 
aged the soil, causing it to become stiff, gummy, and sour. The first commercial 
use of the oil was due to the ingenuity of a woman, about the year 1850. The 
process of extracting the oil was at first very crude, and the remainder of the fish, 
the ‘‘scrap,’’ was for the most part thrown away. Both the oil and the ‘“‘scrap”’ 
are now manipulated with improved and expensive machinery and apparatus. 
At the present time there are about 30 factories with 70 steamers engaged 
in the business of taking menhaden and making them into “scrap” and oil. 
The average annual catch is about 600,000,000 fish, producing some 70,000 
tons of ‘‘scrap”’ and 35,000 barrels of oil. The industry has been on its present 
basis since about 1885. During these twenty-three years the annual catches 
have varied greatly, from about 250,000,000 in 1892 to over 1,000,000,000 
in 1903, but there has been little or no variance in the average for a period of 
years. The catch per steamer per season has also greatly varied, owing to 
locality of operations and the proverbial luck of fishermen, from 3,000,000 
Or 4,000,000 to 23,000,000. The season of 1906 was a poor one; last season, 
1907, was poorer, the total catch not being over 350,000,000. This season up to 
the date of this writing, September 7, has been one of the best ever known, 
and prospects are for a catch of at least 800,000,000. ‘These facts seem to 
demonstrate clearly that so far as abundance is concerned, taking an average 
period of years, there has been no diminution of the quantity. Weather con- 
ditions, particularly the temperature of the water, govern the movements of 
menhaden greatly. This has been an ideal season, the weather along the 
coast from Hatteras to Montauk having been uncommonly mild and pleasant; 
during the previous two seasons of 1906 and 1907, on the contrary, these con- 
ditions were exceedingly unfavorable. 
EFFECTS OF THE FISHERY UPON MOVEMENTS AND NUMBERS OF MENHADEN. 
What effect has this fishing on the movements of the fish? Generally, 
the constant operation of modern seines and steamers at, in, and about the 
mouths of the narrower estuaries of the ocean have a tendency to keep the 
fish out of such waters. To illustrate, the daily operation during the early 
months of this season of some 30 steamers about the mouth of the Chesapeake 
Bay undoubtedly kept fish that had started for that water away, and turned 
them both up and down the adjacent parts of the Atlantic coast, and notwith- 
standing the general abundance of these fish this year they have been uncom- 
monly scarce in the upper part of the Chesapeake Bay and the rivers emptying 
into it. The fishing on the present scale has kept the fish out of the smaller 
bays, inlets, and rivers in the immediate neighborhood of large seining opera- 
tions in the near-by ocean. Also, excessive or reckless fishing, even when on 
very large schools, and especially when the fish are on their migratory move- 
