T/ie Pilc/iard Fishery. 



cleaned by women and children, and piled, ^ith layers of 

 salt, in large heaps in cellars or warehouse*, where they 

 remain for about a month ; and being subsequently washed 

 and thoroughly cleaned, are packed in -hogsheads and 

 subjected to pressure to extract the oil, about three gallons 

 being yielded by each cask, when the fish are mt. 



Great quantities of salted pilchards are pent to the 

 Mediterranean, particularly to Naples and otter parts of 

 Italy, where they are largely consumed during Lent. 



The number of hogsheads exported in 1851 

 The average for 10 years then stood at 23,44(1 

 Taking the number at 2500 fish to the ho| 

 58,500,000 fish are caught annually, weighing 

 About 5000 tons of salt are required to cure t 



export, as there is but a small local consumptic n. 



In the seven years ending 1863 the ave 



export was only 13,757 hogsheads, but 1859 an 1 1860 were 



unprecedently bad years, the take being only 



was 26,743. 

 hogsheads, 

 shead, over 

 [0,620 tons, 

 ic catch for 



age annual 



3500 hogs- 



heads. The catch of 1863, on the contra, was large, 

 reaching 26,057 hogsheads. The shipments were larger at 

 the close of the last century than they are nowj 



The total takes in Cornwall for the lastj three years 

 have been very small, namely, 7543^ hogsheads in 1874, 

 7337i m ^75, and 6700 in 1876. In the last-named year 

 only from 300 to 400 hogsheads were captured during the 

 summer fishing, which ends on the I5th of September. 

 These produced from 6$s. to 67^. per hogshead. The main 

 take was in the autumn and winter, and they went as high 

 in price as iooj. per hogshead. 



Italy will absorb, at fair prices, as much as 30,000 

 hogsheads annually, and depends upon Cornwall for the 

 supply. 



Pilchards arrive on the coasts of Devon and Cornwall 



