2746 AWARD OF THE FISHERY COMMISSION. 



able and the average better than they are when they come in, in the 

 foreign importation ? A. I do not think that this makes the mackerel 

 more salable, but perhaps some dealer there may consider such barrels 

 of mackerel, when number twos, good enough for number ones, and pack 

 them in half barrels and then have them branded number ones. 



Q. In Boston ? A. Yes. This may be done ; I have no doubt that it 

 is done. 



Q. For the very best mackerel, what they call mess mackerel, the fat- 

 test and the best, how extensive is the market in the United States at 

 high prices ? How many barrels of mackerel, costing $20 a barrel, and 

 from that upward, would the United States market take ? A. It might 

 take, I think, 6,000 or 8,000. 



Q. No more ? A. At $20 a barrel I should hardly think that more 

 would be taken. 



Q. What becomes of it ? A. Eight or ten years ago more might have 

 been taken, because a dollar more a barrel was not then looked upon in 

 the same light as at the present moment ; but now that is not the case. 



Q. Where do these high costing mackerel go ? A. To the cities chiefly, 

 and hotels ; some private families possibly take a few, but I do not think 

 that a very large proportion of them are used in New England. I think 

 that a good many go to Pennsylvania, to Philadelphia ; and to New 

 York City particularly. 



Q. At high prices will the market take a large quantity of the com- 

 mon grades of mackerel, which are used not in the way of luxury, but 

 for food ? A. This would depend somewhat on the catch of lake fish 

 and herring; a good many are used South ; and these come into com- 

 petition, I suppose, with the herring fisheries. I should suppose that 

 at the rate of $7 or $8 a barrel, the market would take a pretty good 

 catch of mackerel, grades number twos and threes. 



Q. At what point will the purchase on a large scale of common mack- 

 erel cease for consumption ! A. I should think that if the common 

 grades of mackerel went in price above $10 a barrel, it would go pretty 

 hard if any considerable quantity of them was takeu. 



Q. When you go to Boston in winter are you in the habit of going 

 about and making inquiries touching matters connected with your busi- 

 ness ? A. Yes, almost daily. 



Q. You do not then have a great deal of business to do ? A. No. 



Q. What is it that fixes the price of mackerel in the United States 

 market? A. O, well, of course it is the supply and demand, as is the 

 case with everything else. When there is a large catch of mackerel on 

 the American shore, prices rule low ; this is a very sensitive market. 

 If a fleet of 500, GOO, or 800 vessels are fishing for mackerel, and those 

 interested get reports of the fleet doing anything, the market falls at 

 once; and this is the case particularly when prices are any way inflated. 



Q. Has there been anything to interfere, during the last few years, 

 with the demand for salt mackerel ? Has this been as great of late years 

 as it was formerly ? A. The universal opinion among dealers in New 

 York and Boston and other places is that the demand for salt mackerel 

 has fallen off a great deal. Of course, the number of inhabitants is in- 

 creasing very rapidly, but the demand for mackerel has not increased 

 in that same ratio, and there must be some cause for it. Probably the 

 catch of lake fish has interfered somewhat with this demand, and ship- 

 ments of fresh fish by rail has been extending farther into the country t 

 of late, besides. 



Q. How far west are fresh fish sent! A. They are dispatched as far 

 west as any one travels, I think, from what I have understood. 



