HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN MENHADEN. 179 



though this practice is less commou thau it formerly was. Still every 

 factory buys fish iii greater or less quantity, aud the answers to ques- 

 tion 47 of the circular are important in exhibiting the variations in 

 abundance at different points on the coast. Perhaps it may not be amiss 

 to quote fully from the letters, it being quite impossible to tabulate the 

 facts. 



Mr. William H. Sargent, of Castine, Me., says : " For four years past 

 the average price has been G5 cents per round barrel.* 



Jason Luce & Co., of Meuemsha Bight, estimate that menhaden 

 average from 225 to 240 in a barrel.t 



In the report of the committee on statistics from the United States 

 Association for the meeting of 1875, the estimate was put at three barrels 

 to the thousand fish, or 333 fish to the barrel. 



Captain Tuthill estimates 22 cubic inches to each fish, Captain Sissou 

 21, making three and one- half barrels to the thousand. In Long Island 

 Sound the fish are sold by the thousand j farther east, always by the 

 barrel. . 



Mr. Condon, of Belfast, estimates the i^rice for 1873 at GO cents j Mr. 

 G. B. Keuuiston, of Booth Bay, at 75 cents, stating that in previous 

 years the price has ranged from 50 cents to $1.25. Mr. B. F. Bright- 

 man says that in 1872 and 1873 the average has been 65 cents, but that 

 when oil was high they have brought $1. Mr. J. Washburn, of Port- 

 land, estimates the price at 81 for 1873; during the war, much higher. 

 Mr. Eben B. Phillips estimates the price at from CO to 70 cents in 1873, 

 5G in 1874, and about CO in previous years. Fall fish, for trying, bring 

 40 to 50 cents in Welllieet, Mass., according to Mr. Dill. At Nantucket, 

 according to Mr. Keuben C. Kenny, the fish are worth from 50 to 75 

 cents as taken from the nets ; only about half are used in the manu- 

 facture of oil. 



Mr. Church gives the average price on Narragansett Bay at 40 cents, 

 and to this correspond very nearly the estimates of the southern shore 

 of Ca])e Cod and the Vineyard Sound, which find market for their men- 

 haden at the Narragansett factories. 



Captain Crandall, of Watch Dill, R. L, thinks $2 to the thousand a 

 fair estimate for 1873 and 1874. Captain Beebe, of ISTiantic, Conn., 

 agrees with this, giving $2.50 for previous years. Mr. R. B. Ingham, of 

 Saybrook, says $1.25 to $2. Mr. Miles says that in 1873 the prices 

 ranged from $1 to 82.50, according to the yield of oil. Mr. F. Lilliug- 

 ton, of Shatford, puts it, for 1875, at irom $1.50 to $2. Captain Sissou, 

 of Greenport, says that in 1873 the price was 82.25 5 in previous years, 

 $1.75 ; in 1874 the price was lower. Collector Havens, of Sag Harbor, 



* A " round barrel " is a barrel of undressed fish, and weighs about 200 pounds. The 

 number of fish in a barrel necessarily varies with their size. Estimates range from 

 180 to 280 ; but that made by Mr. Fairchild, at the meeting of the " United States Men- 

 haden Oil and Guano Association," in 1874, is perhaps fair, putting four barrels to a 

 thousand fish, or 250 fish to a barrel. 



t Report United States Commission Fish and Fisheries, 1871-'72, p. 35. 



