EMDEN JOINT-STOCK HERRING-FISHERY ASSOCIATION. 759 



a small scale had proved that by omitthig the soaking iu linseed-oil 

 $2,50-$3 could be saved per net. The total saving per year would 

 therefore be $1,250-$1,500 — truly a small item compared with the risk 

 of ruining the whole fishery. 



The present board of directors would gladly have changed the method 

 of treating the nets as early as 1876, and commenced a new era in the 

 history of the Emden fisheries, but their funds were not large enough 

 to do this, and it also proved at that time a technical impossibility. The 

 attempt to soak the nets in oil long after they had been tanned proved 

 a failure, and was only successful with those nets which had not yet 

 been used in fishing. All that could be done was to get 800 nets pre- 

 pared according to the Dutch method, to examine the old nets fre- 

 quently, and use the best of them by adding them to the lower portion 

 of the " series." With such nets only very moderate results could be 

 expected in 187G, and even these were dependent on fortune's favor, 

 which, we are sorry to say, deserted the fisheries in that year. The 

 year 1876 will always be mentioned in the history of the herring-fisher- 

 ies of all nations as one of the most unfavorable years on record, be- 

 cause the herrings came later and in smaller numbers than usual. The 

 Scotch caught one-third less than during the preceding year, and the 

 Dutch, French, and Norwegians did not fare any better. The fact that 

 the reports of the herring-fisheries in 1876 mention considerable losses 

 must not, however, be considered as an indication that the herring-fish- 

 eries could never be profitable again ; but the different unfavorable cir- 

 cumstances which combined to bring about this result must be taken 

 into account. It is encouraging at any rate to know that the decrease 

 was one-half less than what it was in 1875. The chief cause of the losses 

 which the Emden association experienced in 1876 was the extraordi- 

 narily large number of new nets which had to be bought. In 1877 the 

 association will begin the fisheries with entirely new and good nets. 



All we have said hitherto will enable our readers to understand the 

 statistics of the last five years. In giving them we have for perspi- 

 cuity's sake avoided to give the data too much in detail, which, consid- 

 ering the smallness of the whole enterprise, might easily lead people to 

 make wrong conclusions : 



