190 GEOGRAPHICAL EEVIEW OF THE FISHERIES. 



the food species of shore fish, lobsters, and clams. During the latter part of September and the 

 first of October they take large numbers of shore-herring, and in the winter, quantities of haddock. 

 In 1879 forty five of the larger size boats took 1,990,062 herring in number, and 3,250,000 pounds 

 of other fish. 



Comparing Boston as a fish market with its importance as a fish producing center, we find that 

 the aggregate value of fish and fish products annually received and distributed by the fish dealers 

 is over $5,000,000, exclusive of $700,000 worth of oysters, while the value of the catch by the 

 fishermen and fishing vessels of Boston is about $1,000,000. The total capital invested in the 

 various branches of the fishing industry in Boston and the neighboring towns included in the same 

 customs district is $3,218,949. This amount includes $1,388,200, the value of wharves, storehouses, 

 and fixtures; $225,000, the value of factories for the preparation of canned and boneless fish; and 

 $1,190,000 additional cash capital. If to the total capital as above be added the investment in 

 related industries, such as the net business, the oil-clothing business, and isinglass factories, the 

 aggregate capital dependent on the fishing industry would reach a much larger figure. 



The total number of men directly emploj ed in the fishing industries is about 2,500, to which 

 number may be added several hundred who are engaged in the manufacture of nets, barrels, boxes, 

 and other articles used in the fisheries. 



THE TRADE IN DRY AND PICKLED FISH. Previous to the year 1815 not a single firm in 

 Boston was engaged exclusively in the sale of dry and pickled fish, this business all being carried 

 on by the wholesale grocers, who bought the cured fish direct from the vessels and disposed of 

 them mostly to the New England trade. The first wholesale fish store in Boston for the purchase 

 and sale of dry and pickled fish was opened on Long wharf in 1815 by Mr. Ebenezer Nickerson, 

 and for fifteen years he was the only exclusive salt-fish dealer. In 1830, two other firms 

 engaged in this branch of the fishing industry, and as it steadily grew in importance other firms 

 started, until at the present time there are sixteen wholesale dealers in dry and pickled fish. 

 Of the extent of the business in those early days we have no record, except the custom-house 

 record of exports and the meager report of the State inspector. The fishermen themselves, with 

 very few exceptions, to the present day, keep no account of their business, even from one trip to 

 another. An exceptional good year's business is remembered and handed down as a tradition from 

 year to year. Through the enterprise of the late Mr. Franklin Snow (a dealer ft>r over twenty- 

 five years), the Boston Fish Bureau was organized in 1875. It is an association of the salt-fish 

 dealers for a bureau of information and statistics. Since its organization the records are more 

 complete than ever before. We are indebted to it for tables of the receipts from foreign and 

 domestic ports for the past few years. 



In the early history of the business it was not only confined mainly to New England trade, but 

 to the crude article. The dry fish were tied up in bundles, with or without mats or other covering, 

 and pickled fish were packed in barrels and smaller cooperage packages. At the present time fish 

 are taken from the vessels into the large packing and manufacturing establishments, where they 

 are sorted and rapidly transformed into packages of "boneless," "minced fish," "fish-balls," and 

 various other specialties. They are put up in boxes of all sizes from 1 to 500 pounds, or are 

 packed in tin cases of different sizes, neatly labeled and boxed, and, with the larger packages 

 of whole, half, quarter barrels and kits, are loaded into cars at the door to be shipped to all 

 parts of the country. This improvement over the old manner of doing business has resulted iu a 

 much wider field and increased trade, and Boston-packed preparations of fish are now found in 

 nearly all the grocery stores from the Atlantic to the Pacific. New England caught fish are noticed 

 in the daily market reports of San Francisco and Oregon as much as at home, and commaml 3 



