REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF FISHERIES. 61 
ment in vessels, boats, fishing apparatus, and shore and accessory 
property was $485,627. The wages paid in the wholesale and can- 
_ ning trades amounted to $191,840. The catch aggregated 90,281,646 
crabs in number, or 30,093,882 pounds, valued at $664,651. This 
includes 22,491,675 pounds of hard crabs, valued at $335,375, and 
7,602,207 pounds of soft crabs, valued at $329,276. The hard crabs 
were taken chiefly with trot lines, and smaller quantities with scrapes 
and scoop nets. The greater part of the catch of soft crabs was 
taken with scrapes and scoop nets, and the remainder with trot lines 
and seines. . 
Crisfield still remains the center of both soft and hard crab indus- 
tries, about three-fourths of the entire crab catch of the State bein 
handled and shipped from that place in a live condition or as cra 
meat. Many soft crabs are also brought here for shipment in the 
early spring from the western shore of Virginia. In 1915-there were 
47 firms in Crisfield and immediate vicinity handling soft crabs only, 
17 firms handling hard crabs only, 2 firms handling both soft and 
hard crabs, and 1 firm which canned soft crabs. Several of the soft- 
crab firms had branch houses at various localities throughout Som- 
erset and Dorchester Counties, Md., and Accomac County, Va., their 
products being brought to Crisfield for shipment. Most of the crabs 
caught on the western shore of Maryland are also brought by gasoline 
boats to Crisfield for shipment. With the exception of a few shipped 
by steamer for consumption in Baltimore, practically all of the soft 
crabs are sent by express from Crisfield. 
Somerset County leads all other counties in the production of 
crabs, the value of its output to the fishermen in 1915 amounting to 
$365,498, as compared with $130,136 for Dorchester, $106,480 for 
Talbot, $18,695 for Queen Anne, $14,210 for Anne Arundel, $12,385 
for Kent, $4,900 for Calvert, $3,425 for St. Mary, $1,850 for Wi- 
comico, $1,670 for Charles, and $1,000 for Baltimore. The value of 
the hard-crab industry far exceeds that of the soft-crab industry in 
all of the above counties except Somerset, where the conditions are’ 
reversed. All of the soft crabs except a few used for canning at 
Crisfield are shipped alive, while most of the hard crabs are utilized. 
in the extraction of the meat, which is packed and shipped in tin: 
buckets. There were only 3 firms in the State canning crabs in 1915,' 
2 of these handling hard and 1 soft crabs; the combined output of 
these firms was 179,976 cans, including a few glass jars, having a’ 
value of $33,759. 
The crab industry of Virginia employed 2,978 persons and $367,150 
in invested capital. The catch amounted to 60,748,158 crabs in 
number, or 20,249,386 pounds, valued at $317,156; of these, 18,765,148 
pounds, valued at $242,754, were hard crabs, and the remainder, 
1,484,238 pounds, valued at $74,402, were soft crabs. The most 
important apparatus used for crabs in Virginia is the trot line, which 
took 14,042,861 pounds, valued at $135,817; dredges are next, with 
a catch of 4,196,000 pounds, valued at $94,928; the remaining hard 
crabs were taken by means of scrapes and scoop nets. Scoop nets 
constitute the most important apparatus used in the soft-crab 
fishery, the catch with these amounted to 867,797 pounds, valued at 
nie ed scrapes are next in importance with 616,441 pounds, valued 
at $27,040. 
6111°—17——5 
