AWARD OF THE FISHERY COMMISSION. 2887 



the best demand in the summer months and June. I have bought old 

 mackerel in July and August that were caught the year preceding, but 

 t.o pay very high prices for mackerel now from the commencement of 

 the year would be throwing money away. 



Q. Is the demand for salt mackerel as good now as it was years ago ? 

 A. No, not nearly so. 



Q. To what do you attribute that! A. To the inland fisheries. 



Q. Such as what? A. The white and siscoe or lake herring fisheries. 

 Whitefish have formed the largest element in the destruction of the de- 

 mand, of late years. 



Q. To what regions has salt mackerel gone for consumption ? A. To 

 those near and in the large cities on the sea-coast, such as Boston, New 

 York, and Philadelphia, and to Baltimore, to a limited extent ; and then 

 they have gone inland. 



Q. What quality do the cities take ? A. Always the best quality, 

 with the exception of Baltimore, which always takes the poorest quality. 



Q. Owing to a large negro population ? A. No ; they are sent thence 

 to the markets south of it, where they take small mackerel, which will 

 number out better than number ones. The price in Baltimore for 

 medium threes is as large, I think, as for threes, and I do not know but 

 as large as for twos, or, at all events, there is very little difference be- 

 tween them. Mackerel threes sell better there than ones. 



Q. Ketail? A. I mean wholesale. Number one mackerel have been, 

 of late years, almost unknown in the Southern market, where 10 or 15 

 years ago there used to be a large trade for them ; in the New Orleans 

 market, for instance, a great many of them used to be sold. 



Q. You spoke of inland fisheries ; what do you say with respect to 

 fresh fish from the sea? A. That trade has been developed very much 

 lately, and people will buy fresh fish before they will salt fish, codfish 

 excepted. I do not think that the codfish trade has been affected so 

 much in this direction as the mackerel business. The codfish trade 

 seems to hold its own ; the demand for this fish has, I think, really in- 

 creased. ' 



Q. It has held its own ? A. The demand for cod has increased. 



Q. Which do you regard as the more important article, the fresh or 

 salt-mackerel ? A. They are about equal ; there is not much difference 

 between them. 



Q. How far west do fresh fish go 1 A. They go all over the whole 

 country. In fact, before I came up here they were making arrangements 

 to take fresh halibut and mackerel in refrigerated cars over the United 

 States in summer. I think that a very large trade in fresh fish could 

 be developed. 



Q. And they do go as far west as the Mississippi ? A. Yes ; and to 

 California. I have known halibut shipped to Omaha and all round those 

 sections of the country. 



Q. What do you say with reference to the catch of herring on our own 

 coasts ? A. Well, the catch of herring there has not beeu very large, 

 and the price has been very low. I should say, excepting the annual 

 catch during the last 5 or 6 years, 100,000 barrels a year would not be 

 very far from a right estimate. 

 1 Q. It has beeu cheaper to buy. than to catch them ? A. Well, yes. 



Q. Is there a large supply of herring on our own coasts ? A. I think 

 that at the present time the largest supply is off our own coasts. 



Q. You told me this morning something about the comparative price 

 of a kind of herring you called round herring? A. Yes, round shore 

 herring. 



