250 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



HISTORY AND EXTENT OF THE INDUSTRY. 



A ceutury and more ago, when a niucli larger nnniber of the home 

 requisites were prepai-ed by consumers tlian is the case at the i)resent 

 time, it was a part of the duties of nuiiiy farmers ah)ng; tlie Middle 

 Atlantic coast to devote a few weeks each spring to taking menhaden 

 for the purpose of fei-tilizing the cultivated land. Large shore seines 

 made of cotton twine were employed, and in some localities these 

 were owned jointly by several farmers of the vicinity. The length of 

 some of these seines was 3,000 feet or more, and fiXMpiently the catch 

 at a single haul numbered several hundred thousand fish, although 

 the average quantity was nearer 10,000 or 12,000. This farmer-fishery 

 has continued up to the present time, but its extent is now very much 

 reduced, owing to the ease with which prei)ared fertilizers may be 

 purchased. 



Following upon the development of this use of fresh or green men- 

 haden came the discovery that the oil was valuable for painting, 

 leather-dressing, etc. Some of the farmers would provide a few casks 

 or hogsheads which they partly filled with fish, adding water to cover 

 them, and with weighted boards placed ou top to keep the mass down. 

 On the disintegration of the fish through i)utre faction they were occa- 

 sionally stirred with a long pole to break up the mass and liberate the 

 oil, which floated to the surface of the water and was skimmed off from 

 time to time. After several weeks the oil ceased to flow, and the 

 residuary mass was used as fertilizer. For many years the extent of 

 this business was very small and the product was entirely for home use. 



The first imi)rovement in the above i)rocess consisted in boiling the 

 fish in kettles to facilitate the extraction of the oil, the boiled fish 

 being then placed in casks, as above noted, resulting in a much larger 

 product. By 1830 the cooking of the fisli was quite general among 

 the few persons engaged in extracting oil from menhaden. The oil 

 was dark and crude, and used only for rough painting and leather- 

 dressing, the market being restricted to the neighboi-s of the manu- 

 facturers. The use of kettles, however, involved a great waste of heat, 

 and the business was of very little consequence until the introduction 

 of steam in cooking the fish. The first steam factory, according to 

 the late Capt. E. T. Deblois, was a small one built in 1841 near Ports- 

 mouth, R. I. 



In 1850 Daniel Wells built a factory on Shelter Island, New York. 

 That was the first factory of considerable size on the coast, and the 

 (luantity of fish handled amounted to 2,000,000 or 3,000,000 in number 

 annually. In 1853 Mr. AVells built a new factory on Shelter Island, 

 and the old one was removed to Groton, Conn., being the first steam 

 factory in that State. The first factory in Maine was put up in 1863 

 at South Bristol, and in 1800 eleven factories were built in Maine. In 

 1869 the factory at South Bristol, Me., was removed to Fairport, Va., 

 and was the first factory in that State. 



