220 GEOGRAPHICAL REVIEW OF THE FISHERIES. 



is raked up, aiid taken up the beach to be washed iu tubs, when its color changes from dark green 

 to red. It is once more spread out for 24 hours. The washing, spreading, and drying operations 

 are repeated 7 times, and each time the moss loses more or less of its color, until at last it is 

 bleached to nearly a white or straw color. Fresh water injures it, and plenty of sunshine and fair 

 weather is necessary for a proper cure. Should the weather indicate rain, the moss is hastily 

 raked into heaps and covered until fair weather. After curing, it is sold to dealers, packed in 

 barrels, and shipped to the leading markets of Boston, Xew York, and Philadelphia, a small 

 amount being sent to Chicago and Saint Louis. The beaches, from which the moss is mostly gath- 

 ered, are named First, Second, and Third Cliff, Jericho light-house, and Sand Hill. Irish moss is 

 used for numerous purposes ; the first quality being taken by grocers and druggists for food pur- 

 poses. It is also largely used for sizing. The second and inferior quality meets with a ready sale 

 to brewers as a clarifying substance. 



The fisheries of Scituate iu 1879 employed 8 vessels, aggregating 70.02 tons, 170 sail boats 

 and dories, and 1,200 lobster-traps. The total capital invested iu vessels, boats, shore property 

 and apparatus, was 821,520. The value of the marine products was $39,575, and included 1,310,000 

 pounds of cod, 120,000 lobsters, and 4,500 barrels of Irish moss. The number of persons employed 

 on the vessels was 39, and on shore or in boat fisheries, 333; making a total of 372, of which 

 number 335 were Irish, and the rest Americans. 



DUXBURY. The fisheries of Duxbury have decreased year by year since 1835. During 1879 

 four sail, aggregating 157.27 tons, engaged in the near home cod and mackerel fisheries. In May 

 of the previous year a pond, by the order of the town, was stocked with herring. The result will 

 be known about May, 1881. 



Clams have always been plenty here. Formerly quite a large amount was sent from here to 

 Boston. During 1879 thirty men followed the business for the greater part of the year, the yield 

 being 5,000 bushels. These were sold in the neighboring towns. 



The shell-fish industry, according to Mr. Goodspeed, is quite an item. Its average annual 

 return is about $5,000. The earnings of the hands have been decreasing for five or six years, 

 whereby the men became disheartened. A fleet of ten vessels was engaged iu this industry in 

 1860, and, adds Mr. Goodspeed, "the prospect is that there will only be two next season" (1880). 

 He thinks that the trawls set for ground fish, and the seines and nets for mackerel, are destroying 

 the fisheries rapidly. He also states that the fishermen about Massachusetts Bay regard the 

 reciprocity treaty as a very heavy burden. From the same source, we learn that the lobster fishery 

 of 1879 was pursued by six meu in open boats; each of which, on an average, stocked $300. The 

 business is said to have declined one-half in the last five, years. 



A fertilizer factory was started in Duxbury iu the fall of 1879 under the name of the Standard 

 Fertilizer Company. The same company has had a factory at Bristol, Maine, since 1874. The 

 Dux-bury factory is ruu by a ninety horse-power engine and employs sixty men. The fertilizing 

 compound is manufactured largely from fish products. During the fall of 1879 and the winter of 

 1879-'80, 1,000 tons of fish waste, the refuse skins and bones of the " boneless fish " factories, with 

 400 tons of menhaden chum were used. Any and all kinds of refuse fish and old bones are in 

 demand here. Sharks, skates, and all the various fish heretofore considered worse than useless 

 now find a ready sale, and are quietly turned to good account. 



The proportional parts of the compost are about one-third each of fish-waste, phosphate, and 

 sulphuric acid. The fish-waste is one-third menhaden chum and two-thirds fish scraps. The pro- 

 cess of manufacture is as follows : The chum aud scraps are placed in a large mixing box hold- 

 ing 1,500 pounds, aud a revolving shaft, to which numerous spokes or paddles are attached, 



