2886 AWARD OF THE FISHERY COMMISSION. 



state of the market. We sometimes buy ahead, and sometimes to 

 arrive, and I, have known mackerel lay on the market for 2 mouths 

 sometimes. 



Q. How large a quantity of mackerel costing, say, $20 a barrel retail, 

 will the market of the United States take ? How large a market is 

 there for high-priced mackerel ? A. This is very limited. I should not 

 say that over 5,000 or 6,000 or 8,000 barrels of this mackerel would be 

 so taken ; the quantity might perhaps go as high as 10,000 barrels; but 

 I would be afraid to hazard that number as a calculation. The market 

 will only take a very limited quantity of this quality. 



Q. Where is it taken? A. Principally by the leading hotels and res- 

 taurants, which have it on their bills of fare. 



Q. At what figure must the prices of the other grades range in order 

 to secure free consumption of them ? A. Well, they have to be a cheap 

 article of food, and range lower than all other fish and other products 

 of the United States which come into direct competition with them. 



Q. What must the prices be per barrel ? A. \V hen the price of num- 

 ber two mackerel, for instance, which is a staple article, gets up to $9 

 a barrel, it sells hard ; and we find that the trade do not then want it. 



Q. What must number one be sold at ? A. If their price was $15, a 

 large amount of this quality could not be sold. 



Q. We notice a very large range of prices in the price-list for mack- 

 erel ; what do you say to that ? A. I do not know as I understand it. 

 It is owing probably to quality, some. 



Q. It is a speculative article with respect to price? A. Yes; I think 

 it is. I think that the prices of mackerel are as much influenced by 

 speculation as by the catch. 



Q. You think so ? A. Yes ; Tdo. I think I can prove that and give 

 an illustration of- it. 



Q. Let' us have it. A. I think that in the year 1870, if I mistake not, 

 we had the next to the largest catch we ever had in one State ; my im- 

 pression is that the catch that year was over 300,000 barrels 318,000 

 or 320,000; and I think that prices were higher that year than they 

 have ever been any year that there has been a small catch. I think 

 this was owing to the fact that in 1869, 1868, and 1867 there was a small 

 catch ; prices had ruled pretty high, and there had been a considerable 

 demand; and in 1870, when there was a very large catch, the speculators 

 just operated in them and kept prices up. 



Q. Were these high prices maintained ? A. No. 1 think that No. 1 

 bay mackerel, in the fall, were bought by us at $22.50 and piled away 

 over winter; and I think that the next May and; June they were sold down 

 as low as $4, $5, and $6 a barrel, the same fish ; and I think that shore 

 mackerel, which had sold as high as $24, were then sold for about the 

 same price. Prices had been carried above what the people would give 

 and they would not take them. 



Q. Of late years can mackerel be carried beyond the autumn mouths 

 without loss ? A. No. The way the demand has now turned, we have 

 the best demand the time they are caught ; that is to say, August mack- 

 erel will sell best in August, September mackerel in September, and 

 October mackerel in October ; and when you get through that year and 

 come on to the next year, the demand almost ceases. The market, in 

 this respect, is entirely changed to what it used to be. 



Q. And through the winter and spring there is hardly any demand ! 

 A. Well, when you get into April and May and June there is no de- 

 mand, and holders then get rid of their fish in the best way they can. 

 From 1855 up to 1865 it used to be the direct reverse. We used to have 



