MASSACHUSETTS AND ITS FISHERIES. 



127 



taxable property. A fearful change awaited all. The dispute was now to be determined by an 

 appeal to arms, and every maritime enterprise was to be interrupted and ruined."* 



Sabine gives the following figures to show the condition of the Massachusetts cod fishery 

 before and after the Revolutionary war: 



THE FISHERIES PROM 1700 TO I860. From the close of the Revolutionary war until the war 

 of 1812 the Massachusetts fisheries were in a somewhat fluttering condition, and efforts were made 

 by acts ot Congress to encourage them. In 1789, an act was passed which granted a bounty of 5 



* "The inhabitants of the sea-shore of Massachusetts, impelled by their necessities, commenced the manufacture of 

 salt from sea-water early in the Revolution. From the accounts preserved it would seem that they boiled the water 

 at first, but were compelled to relinquish the experiment because of the expense and of the impurity of the salt. The 

 next attempt was by solar evaporation, on Boston Neek, by General Palmer, 'a worthy and enterprising gentleman, 

 who failed in consequence of the rain-water which fell into his uncovered works. The third experiment is said to 

 have been made in Dennis, Cape Cod, by Capt. John Sears, who, in the end, was successful. He constructed a vat 

 with rafters and shutters, so arranged as to exclude the rain in storms and to expose the sea-water to the action of 

 the sun in pleasant weather. The first year he obtained only 8 bushels of salt. His neighbors called his invention 

 ' Sciirs's Folly ' ; yet he persevered. The second year he made 30 bushels of salt. The fourth year, instead of pouring 

 water into his vat from buckets, ho introduced a Aa<7-pump. In 1785, at the suggestion of Ma.j. Nathaniel Freeman, 

 of Harwich, he contrived a tcinrf-piimp, which he continued to use, and which saved a vast deal of labor. In 17!>3, 

 Mr. Reuben Sears, of Harwich, invented covers for salt-vats, to move on slaves, or small wheels, as in ships' blocks. 

 Five years later, Mr. Hattil Kelley, of Dennis, constructed a new kind of vat and a new method of moving the covers. 

 Various changes were made by different persons subsequently; and the manufacture of salt from sea-water, by solar 

 evaporation, became extensive, and at times profitable. Capt. John Sears was assisted in the improvements in his 

 works by Captain William, Capt. Christopher Crowell, and by Capt. Edward Sears, of Dennis. They resigned to him 

 whatever claim they might have had for their aid; and in 171K) he obtained a patent from the Government. His right 

 was, however, disputed by others, who asserted that he made no 'new discovery.' 



"In 1802 the number of salt-works in the county of Harnstable, Massachusetts, was 13C, containing 121,313 feet. 

 These works were estimated to produce annually salt of the value, of f-!l,700. The business increased rapidly; and in 

 1832 the number of feet of salt-works in the same county was 1,425,000; the quantity of salt manufactured, 358,250 

 bushels. The reduction of the duty on the foreign article and other causes produced a great change in the value of 

 this description of property. In 1834 the manufacture was ruinously depressed ; and salt-works, which for many years 

 previously had been considered valuable, as affording a certain income, could hardly be sold at prices above the cost 

 of the materials used in constructing them." 



