THE MENHADEN FISHERY. 35t 



Captain Crandall, of Watch Hill, It. I., thinks $2 to the thousand a fair estimate for 1873 and 

 1874. Captain Beebe, of Niautic, Conn., agrees with this, giving $2.50 for previous years. Mr. 

 E. E. Inghain, of Saybrook, says $1.25 to $2. Mr. Miles says that in 1873 the prices ranged from 

 81 to $2.50, according to the yield of oil. Mr. F. Lillingtou, of Shattbrd, puts it for 1875 at from 

 $1.50 to $2. Captain Sisson, of Greenport, says that in 1873 the price was $2.25; in previous 

 years, $1.75 ; in 1S74 the price was lower. Collector Havens, of Sag Harbor, N. Y., estimates it 

 at 30 cents per barrel. In the vicinity of Atlantic City, N. J., M. A. G. Wolf gives the price at 

 $1.25 to the thousand; and Mr. Albert Morris, of Somers Point, at 39 cents per barrel (about $1.50 

 to the thousand). Mr. Hance Lawsou, of Crisfleld, Md., states that the Chesapeake factories pay 

 15 cents per bushel.* Mr. Dudley says that in 1877 the average price in the Chesapeake was 50 

 cents a thousand. 



PRICES PROPORTIONATE TO AMOUNT OF on, CONTAINED IN FISH. These prices are simply 

 those paid for fish used in the manufacture of oil and guano, the prices of those sold for bait or 

 food being given under other heads. No satisfactory conclusions can be drawn from these state- 

 ments except the very general one that the fish are more valuable on the eastern than on the south- 

 ern coast of New England; in Maine bringing from $2.40 to $3.20 to the thousand ; on Long Island 

 Sound, $1 to 82.25. As the expense of capture is necessarily as great in Southern as in Northern 

 waters, we must seek the reason of the difference in price either in the methods of manufacture, the 

 abundance of the fish, or in the intrinsic value of the fish for the purposes of the manufacturer. 



OIL YIELD OF NORTHERN FISH PRIOR TO 1879. On the first arrival of the schools in North- 

 ern waters the fish are thin and do not yield a large quantity of oil; but they rapidly gain until the 

 time of their departure in the fall, so that the late fishing is by far the most profitable. It is the 

 general opinion of fishermen that Northern fish yield a larger proportionate amount of oil than 

 Southern. 



Mr. Sargent, of Castine, Me., says that 3 quarts of oil to the barrel is the smallest yield he 

 has ever known from the first school, and 6 gallons the most from the last school. When the fish 

 are very poor, about the 1st of June, it takes 250 to make 1 gallon of oil; when poor, in July, 

 200; when fat, in August, 150; when very fat, in October, 100. About 1 ton of scrap is obtained 

 in naking 3 barrels of oil. Mr. Condon states that when the fish arrive in the spring they will pro- 

 duce but 1 gallon to the barrel, while in October the yield is 4 or 5 gallons; the average for the 

 season being 3 gallons. Mr. Friend states that the least yield, in June, is 2 quarts to the barrel; 

 the greatest, in August, 4 gallons. Mr. Kenniston states that May fish yield 3 pints to the barrel; 

 October fish. C.J gallons. These are no doubt intended as the extreme figures. The average yield 

 is 2 gallons to the barrel, an estimate in which Mr. Brightman concurs, though placing the lowest 

 at 3 quarts; the highest, in August and September, at 4 gallons. He estimates the yield of a ton 

 of scrap at 30 to 40 gallons, according to the season. Judson Tarr & Co. put the early fish at less 

 than a gallon, the September fish at 4 gallons to the barrel. Mr. Babson thinks that the early fish 

 yield about a gallon, the last 4 gallons; an estimate in which he is confirmed by Mr. E. B. Phillips. 



Mr. Erskine Pierce, of Dartmouth, Mass., states that in 1877 the average yield at his factory 

 was 1 gallons to the barrel. 



According to Mr. Church, the fish are fattest generally in the fall, though after a warm winter 

 he has known them, after the first arrival, to yield 2 gallons. After a cold winter the opposite is 

 true; and he has seen them so poor in the summer that out of 100 barrels of fish not a pint of oil 

 could be extracted. The first 18,000 barrels taken by Church & Co., on the coast of Maine, in 1873, 

 did not make over 14,000 gallons of oil (about 3 quarts to the barrel). On Narragansett Bay, in 

 1873, the yield was 1 gallons less than on the coast of Maine; on Long Island Sound, half a gallon. 



"About 50 cents per barrel, or $2 to the thousand. 



