HISTOKY OF THE AMERICAN MENHADEN. 181 



fish yield about a gallou, the last four gallons ; an estimate in which he 

 is confirmed by Mr. E. B. Phillips. 



Mr. Erskine Pierce, of Dartmouth, Mass., states that in 1877 the av- 

 erage yield at his factory was 1-^ gallons to the barrel. 



According to Mr. Church, the fish are fattest generally in the fall, 

 though after a warm winter he has known them after first arrival to 

 yield 2J gallons. After a cold winter the opposite is true; and he has 

 seen them so poor in the summer that out of one hundred barrels of 

 fish not a pint of oil could be extracted. The first 18,000 barrels taken 

 by Church & Co., on the coast of Maine, in 1873, did not make over 

 14,000 gallons of oil (about three quaKs to the barrel). On Narragan- 

 sett Bay, in 1873, the yield was IJ gallons less than on the coast of 

 Maine; on Long Island Sound, half a gallon. 



Mr. Reuben Chapman informed me that at his factory, on Mason's 

 Island, opposite Noank, Conn., the yield of early fish was sometimes 

 as low as a gallon to the thousand, later in the season reaching fourteen 

 or even eighteen gallons ; which would be equivalent to five or six gal- 

 lons to the barrel. 



Mr. Maddocks, writing of the Maine fish, states: "The yield of oil 

 sometimes doubles, per head, in thirty days after their coming. The 

 fish taken on the coast of Maine yield a considerably larger supply of 

 oil than those taken at points farther south, around Long Island, oft the 

 Jersey shore, &c. The amount of oil per barrel of fish is there about 

 one gallon, against two and a half here, for the whole season in each 

 case." 



And again: "The amount of oil realized varies from one gallon per 

 barrel of fish early in the season to four or five gallons in September. 

 The scrap contains, on the average, as it comes from the press, 55 to 60 

 per cent, of its weight in water, and sometimes more. This is, of course, 

 worthless for fertilizing purposes. It also contains from 12 to 20 per 

 cent, of fat or oil, which is equally worthless for manure." 



Mr. Dudley considers that the first taken in Long Island Sound yield, 

 on an average, about 4 gallons to the thousand. At Pine Island it is 

 somewhat greater; one season averaged 3^, another 6^. In 1877 the 

 average to June 12 was 5 gallons; to November 1, 3 gallons. On No- 

 vember 1 the fat fish made their appearance, and the average has since 

 doubtless greatly increased. There is usually an increase in the yield of 

 oil after July 1, but since 1874 this has not been the case in Southern 

 New England. Mr. Dudley has cooked fish which would not yield a 

 quart of oil to the thousand. Again, in November, the yield has been 

 18 gallons. It is the opinion of Mr. Dudley that dark oil only is yielded 

 by fish taken in brackish water; light oil by those taken outside. 



The George W. Miles Company, of Milford, states that the largest 

 amount made by them in one factory in any one year was in 1871, when 

 they produced 100,000 in about fifty working days; the largest quantity 

 in the shortest time was 21,000 gallons in seventy-two hours, or 7,000 



