70 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



amount we have been producing; and we are assured beyond 

 question that an abundance of fish, quite equal to these demands, 

 swim along our shores, and that the capture of a sufficient num- 

 ber of them would not appreciably affect their plentifulness. 

 Surely the legislation that prevents the development of this 

 source of wealth must be at fault somewhere. 



Such legislation exists in Maine, Massachusetts, New York, and 

 Virginia ; and the conditions under which these laws were passed 

 deserve to be cited here. In considering these repressive enact- 

 ments it will be apropos first to examine the arguments urged in 

 favor of them. Three principal objections to the menhaden fish- 

 eries are made: First, that fishing for menhaden, mackerel, or 

 any other fish with a purse seine (the appliance now used) de- 

 pletes the supply of these fishes ; second, that menhaden is the 

 food of many of the food fishes, and the depletion or " driving 

 away of the shoals " of this species by seining, forces the food 

 fishes mackerel, striped bass, bluefish, etc. to seek other wa- 

 ters; and, third, that the enormous captures of menhaden for 

 the purposes of making oil and guano prevent the procuring of 

 bait for our cod and other fisheries; it being included in the 

 third objection that inasmuch as cod, mackerel, bluefish, and 

 other species are captured with menhaden bait, this latter fish is 

 a natural food of the food fishes. It is also claimed that the 

 shoals of fish are frightened by the purse seines, so much so that 

 they cease to frequent the shores in the same abundance. These 

 constitute in brief the objections to the capture of menhaden 

 for oil and guano, and form the basis of the reasons why the 

 States of Maine, Massachusetts, New York, and Virginia passed 

 prohibitory laws. 



Let us now examine the other side of the question. Before the 

 Committee on Merchant Marine and Fisheries of the United States 

 Senate, February 17, 1892, Mr. William F. Brown, of Philadel- 

 phia, said : " The annual value of our " (the Menhaden Associa- 

 tion) "product for the last twenty years has averaged $1,500,- 

 000, more than two thirds of which is paid to the two thousand 

 men employed. And when you consider that every dollar of 

 this more than $25,000,000 is a permanent clear addition to the 

 wealth of the nation, because the crude material is taken from 

 the sea ; and when you have seen how generally the whole people 

 are interested, directly and indirectly, in our success or failure, 

 you will stand amazed at the recital of the persecutions and legis- 

 lative wrongs to which we have been subjected." Further on 

 Mr. Brown made a general denial of all the objections claimed by 

 the opponents of the menhaden industry. This statement is 

 backed up by the evidence of Mr. Eugene Blackford, of New 

 York ; of Captain Nathaniel Church and his brother Daniel T. 



