76 COMMERCE, iSTAVIGATION AND FISHERIES. 



of 284,000 tons of commercial fertilizers, applied in the South at the rate of 

 250 pounds per acre to raise one bale of cotton, and that thus the scrap or 

 guano made from menhaden after the oil has been expressed becomes the 

 active ammonial agent in raising 2, 272,000 bales of cotton, besides corn, 

 sugar cane, and other products. 



A few words more and I am done. Many of this audience may have 

 but an inadequate idea of the actual extent to which the fisheries, of our 

 County are carried, and it is certain that by the world at large they are 

 quite generally underestimated, if, indeed, they are known at all. For 

 information of those who care to know somethinij of this topic, I read from 

 an official statement kindly sent me by Mr. Nimmo, some figures respecting 

 only the products of the fisheries (menhaden and edible swimming and sh^ll 

 fish) brought into the U. S. Customs District of- Sag Harbor — which 

 includes the Surveyor's District of Greenport — from 1872 to 1883, inclu- 

 sive, the fiscal year being meant in each case and ending June 30. It will 

 be noted that this leaves out of computation the products of the 

 oyster, clam and other fisheries in L I. Sound, in the ocean, and in the 

 bays on the south and north sides of the county, and relates only to the 

 towns bordering on Peconic and Gardiner's bays. During those twelve 

 years the total reported value brought in from the sea at those ports was 

 $7,822,928. In the one year of 1882 the value so reported was $1,400,850. 

 While, in the absence of authentic figures returned from any other portion 

 of the county, it is impossible to give accurate results as to the products of 

 fisheries in the large aria unreported, it' may, I think safely be reckoned 

 that their value would range each year from $400,000 to $600,000, and 

 that a low average would be half a million dollars — making for the twelve 

 years referred 10, an aggregate af at least $6,000,000. 'Indeed, with every 

 disposition to be moderate in ths esfmate, I deem it entirely within bounds 

 to believe that the fisheries of Suffolk county during the past twelve years 

 have yielded to thdse engaged in them fully $15,000,000, or the large yearly 

 average of $1,250,000. In this estimate account is made only of commer- 

 cial values, omitting altogether the large quantities of fish taken from the 

 waters of the county and consumed by its inhabitants, the cash value Oi 

 which it is obviously impossible to state. [See note C. page 78 1. 



Note A. — The following should have appeared as a foot note on page 

 64, but through an oversight was omitted: 



It is perhaps proper, as a passing tr.bute to one of the foremost men 

 to whom Suffolk County ever gave birtli, to refer to the eminent services 

 rendered to his country by Nathan Sanford, who was born at Bridgehamp- 

 ton 1777, became a Senator of the United States, succeeded the immortal 

 Kent as Chancellor of this State, was again a Senator and the colleague of 

 VanBurjn, and in 1825 was defeated by John C. Calhoun as a candidate 

 for the Vice Presidency. In 1815, at the close of the unequal but glorious 

 struggle which this country had maintained for three years against all the 

 naval power of Great Britain to assert and defend "Sailors' Rights and the 

 Freedom of the Seas,'' Mr. Sanford devoted the full energy of his powerful 

 intellect to a .restoration of American commerce, prostrated by the war, 

 and aided largely in bringing about that restoration on a sound and healthy 

 bas s. This much seems due to a Suffolk County statesman, who remem- 

 bered the ancestors from whom he sprung, and the toilers by the sea among 

 whom his early years had been spent. 



