56 PACIFIC SALMON FISHERIES. 
In 1888 the Alaska Improvement Co. built a cannery on the left 
bank of the outlet, opposite the point of the spit and facing the 
Shelikof Strait. It was ready to pack in 1888, but. was not operated 
on account of the loss of its cannery ship, the Julia Ford. In the 
spring of 1897 it was sold to the Alaska Packers Association and has 
since been operated by that company. 
In 1893 the Hume Canning & Trading Co. built a cannery on the 
beach under Karluk Head, about three-fourths of a mile northward 
of the Alaska Improvement Co., in what is known locally as Tangle- 
foot Bay. It was operated in 1893 and 1894, and in 1895 it was sold 
to the Alaska Packers Association and operated by that company. 
It has been closed since. 
The great increase in the number of canneries in Alaska in 1888 
and 1889 caused such an enlargement of the pack that the markets 
became glutted, and it was soon apparent that steps would have to 
be taken to reduce the output if the operators were to avoid bank- 
ruptey. : 
Capt. Moser in ‘Salmon and salmon fisheries of Alaska’’* thus 
describes the attempts of the canners to find a working solution of 
this important problem and the final result of their endeavors: 
In 1890 the three canneries at Chignik combined under an operating agreement 
known as the Chignik Bay Combination, under which the plant of the Chignik Bay Co. 
was operated, the three canneries sharing the expense and dividing the output equally. 
This arrangement remained in force during the seasons of 1890 and 1891. Its evident 
success in 1890 probably led to the local combinations on Kodiak Island in 1891, and 
then to the association which now exists. 
The large packs during this period and the glutted market caused the cannery inter- 
ests to devise some scheme to meet the conditions. The combination at Chignik in 
1890 permitted the pack to be made there at a lower rate and, as previously stated, 
it was continued in 1891. The same year (1891) the canneries at Karluk, Uyak, and 
Afognak entered a combination, under the name of the Karluk River Fisheries, under 
which it was agreed that each cannery should have a quota of fish from the several 
localities, based upon the average packs of each cannery in 1889 and 1890. The 
estimated pack for the canneries interested was placed at 250,000 cases, and upon this 
estimate the apportionment of the work at each cannery was made. Under this 
agreement four of the eight canneries were closed, their quota being packed in the other 
four canneries as follows, viz, that of the Royal at the Karluk, of the Arctic at the 
Kodiak, of the Aleutian Islands at the Hume, and of the Russian-American at the 
Alaska Improvement. 
In the summer of 1891 the Kodiak Packing Co. and the Arctic Packing Co., both 
at Alitak Bay, also had a mutual agreement under which only one cannery, the Arctic, 
was operated, the quota of fish of the Kodiak being packed in the Arctic cannery. 
By these combinations the full pack of the Karluk district was made in half the number 
of canneries and the expense of packing very considerably reduced. 
In September, 1891, the Alaska Packers Association was formed to dispose of the 
unsold salmon of that season’s pack (some 363,000 cases) and five trustees were ap- 
pointed to manage the business. This association was not incorporated and expired 
after the salmon were sold. 
a The salmon and salmon fisheries of Alaska. Report of the operations of the U. S. Fish Commission 
steamer Albatross for the year ended June 30, 1898. Bulletin U.S. Fish Commission, vol. xvm, 1898, 
d. 18-21. 
