MAINE: WISCASSET DISTRICT. 69 



some going to the outer headlands or islands to camp during the height of the season. The quan- 

 tity of fish annually cured in the town is about 17,000 quintals. 



Lobstering and clamming are not much followed by the fishermen, as neither species seem to 

 be as plenty as in the districts ou either side. A lobster cannery was built here by Portland 

 parties in 1S76, and by sending its smacks as far as Pemaquid Point on one side and to Small 

 Point on the other a fair supply is obtained. A good many mackerel are put up at the canuery 

 during the season. 



THE MENHADEN INDUSTRY. Between 1807 and 1878, the principal fishing interests of the town 

 centered in the menhaden oil and guano factories located at East Booth Bay. In this fishery the 

 town ranked second in importance in the State. Four of the factories were built in 1866 and a 

 fifth the following year. About the same time another was transferred to the town from South- 

 port, where it had been in operation but a short time. These six factories had a total value in 

 1878 of $146,612. At this time, the firms owned and equipped seventeen steamers at a cost of 

 $216,800, and captured 170,380 barrels offish. They employed two hundred and twenty-one fish- 

 ermen and eighty-six factory hands, and made 475,247 gallons of oil and 4,948 tons of fish guano. 



INDUSTRIES DEPENDENT ON THE FISHERIES. The principal business depending upon the 

 fisheries for its support is ship-building, and in the number of fishing vessels launched from the 

 yards Booth Bay ranks first in the State, the little village of East Booth Bay alone having built 

 over one hundred and fifty sail within the last fifty years, while those built in other parts of the 

 town would swell the aggregate to about one hundred and seventy-five, most of them being of 

 large size. Quite a number of schooners, ships, and brigs have been built during the same period. 

 One firm now does a small business in boat- building. 



The entire commercial interests of the town are largely dependent upon the fisheries, and 

 most of a vessel's needs, in the "way of repairs, gear, or provisions, can be supplied. There are 

 four sail-lofts and two marine railways, with a considerable number of mechanics who are busy in 

 keeping the schooners in repair. In 1870 store-houses were built to supply the fishing-fleet with 

 ice for the preservation of bait and market-fish. In 1874 the Cumberland Bone Company built 

 extensive works in the lower part of the town for the manufacture of fertilizers, and in 1878 they 

 used 1,500 tons of "green" fish-chum, valued at $15,000, in the preparation of their products. 



A company for the manufacture of sea-weed fertilizers, known as the Alga? Fertilizer Com- 

 pany, was formed in 1869; the work was continued for about three years, when the small demand 

 for the products forbade further operations. 



NORTH BOOTH BAY. North Booth Bay, including Sawyer's, Barter's, and Hodgdon's Islands 

 is an agricultural section extending along the east side of the Sheepscott River. There is no vil- 

 lage of note, the population being considerably scattered. Formerly quite an extensive fishing 

 business was carried on by people living along or near the shore, and vessels were sent to Labra- 

 dor for cod, and to Magdalen Islands for herring, beginning with 1831, only a few years after the 

 origin of these fisheries. It has now a fleet of seven vessels engaged in the fisheries: three of 

 these divide their time between trawling and seining; one goes only to Western Banks and 

 Quereau, and three fish along the shore. Fifteen men are employed in boat-fishing during a greater 

 part of the summer, and in lobsteriug and clamming in the spring and fall. The majority of the 

 vessels are fitted and owned by two firms that cure annually about 4,200 quintals of codfish, which 

 are sold largely in Boston and Portland. 



