212 GEOGRAPHICAL REVIEW OF THE FISHERIES. 



borough and other small inland towns. Boston has five small shops that manufactured 18,000 

 drums and 10,000 barrels during 1879. These shops employed seventeen men, a capital of $10,000, 

 and the value of the production was $23,000. 



The towns of Hollis, Brookliue, Merrimack, and Milford, N. H., produced 300,000 half and 

 quarter barrels and kits; 75,000 of which were used in Boston. The capital invested at these 

 places aggregates $50,000, and the value of the products is $75,000. The number of men employed 

 is one hundred. 



At Townsend, Mass., five factories, with numerous small dealers, employed one hundred and 

 fifty men, with an active capital and machinery valued at $100,000. They produced 400,000 

 packages, worth $100,000. One hundred thousand of these packages were kits, holding from 10 

 to 20 pounds each; of which Boston dealers used one-third; Gloucester, New York, and Phila- 

 delphia one-third; the lake fisheries and cities of the West one-third. Messrs. B. & A. D. 

 Fessenden, the largest manufacturers at Townsend, also have a factory at Sandusky, Ohio, where 

 they made 100,000 quarter and half barrels during 1879, for the fish trade of the Great Lakes. 



The number of boneless-fish boxes made in New England towns during 1879 was 400,000, 

 valued at about $40,000. The capital employed in their manufacture was $20,000, and the number 

 of men was twenty-five. 



The total amount of capital employed in New Hampshire and Massachusetts in the manu- 

 facture of packages, chiefly for the Boston fish trade, is $180,000, and the number of men in the 

 factories is two hundred and ninety-two. The number of packages produced in 1879 was about 

 1,128,000, valued at $238,000. 



There are four establishments in Boston and Cambridge engaged in the manufacture of oil 

 clothing and hats, used in various branches of business. The proportional part for fishermen's 

 use gives average steady employment to one hundred persons the entire year, over three hundred 

 being engaged at times during the year. The. goods manufactured are mostly sold along the 

 Atlantic coast north of the Potomac, though a small portion of them goes to the lake or river 

 fishermen of the Middle and Western States. The goods manufactured are of excellent quality 

 and design, and number over a score of varieties of suits, with as many grades and styles of head 

 gear. The capital in this branch of business is about $42,000, and the number of hands employed 

 is one hundred. The value of the products used in the fisheries is about $109,000. 



The numerous ship-chandlery and hardware stores supply the fishing vessels to a limited 

 extent with all that is required, but most of the outfit used on the fleet is furnished by the only 

 exclusive fishing supply store of Messrs. Nickerson & Baxter. The sales of fish lines and hooks 

 by this single firm during 1879 will give some idea of the extent of the fishing interest. Among 

 their sales were the following items: 7,148 dozen tarred cotton fish lines, weighing 88,053 pounds, 

 used for trawl and hand line fishing; 300 dozen imported hemp lines, of 4,500 pounds' weight, used 

 in cod fishing; 908,767 pounds of white cotton hand lines, used for gauging; 25,000 gross of 

 imported Scotch hooks ; 50,000 gross of American manufactured hooks, mostly used for ground 

 fishing. A large trade was formerly done in mackerel hooks, but at present the catch being 

 mostly by seines, only a limited amount are used, so that of hooks for this fishing only 40,000 

 attached to metal jigs were sold. The aggregate sales of lines and hooks by this one firm was 

 1,001,320 pounds of fish line and 7,840,000 fish-hooks. We have noticed only the two leading 

 specialties of the many numerous articles found in a supply store, in order to show something of 

 the amount of the fishing industry. If we add to the above the amount sold by the numerous 

 small dealers and ship chandlers, the aggregate would be much more. There is invested in this 



