THE MENHADEN FISHERY. 



365 



Desert, Me., while boiling some fish for her chickens, noticed a thin scum of oil upon the surface of 

 the water. Some of this she bottled, and when on a visit to Boston soon after carried samples to 

 Mr. E. B. Phillips, one of the leading oil merchants of that city, who encouraged her to bring more, 

 The following year the Bartlett family industriously plied their gill nets and sent to market 13 

 barrels of oil, for which they were paid at the rate of $11 per barrel, in all $143.* 



Mr. Phillips gave them further encouragement, furnishing nets and large kettles, which they 

 set up out of doors, in brick frames, for trying out the fish. It was thought that much oil was 

 thrown away with the refuse fish or scrap, and tm? idea of pressing this scrap was suggested. 

 This was at first accomplished by pressing it in a common iron kettle with a heavy cover and a 

 long beam for a lever; afterward by placing it under the weight of heavy rocks, in barrels and 

 tubs perforated with auger holes. Mr. Phillips subsequently fitted out some fifty parties on the 

 coast of Maine with presses of the model known as the "screw and lever press." 



ERECTION OP FACTORIES IN MAINE. The first factory in Maine was built by a company 

 from lihode Island, in 1864, at Blue Hill, and the next by another company from Rhode Island, at 

 Bristol, on John's Bay, the same season. Operations being successful, home parties in Booth Bay, 

 Bristol, Bremen, and South port went into the business. In the spring of 1866 eleven factories 

 were built, all using steam. This may be regarded as the beginning of the industry in Maine on 

 a scale at all in ratio with its capabilities. 



The following table, taken from Mr. Maddock's pamphlet, gives the dates at which the factories 

 of the several firms named were built, and the cost of the same. The titles of some have since 

 been changed by incorporation with others, change of ownership, &c. Of the eleven factories 

 specified before as built in 18C6, one has been burned, and two absorbed by now exisitiug corpo- 

 rations; they have all been idle since 1879. 



Date of building of factories in Maine. 



* As this account is somewhat different from those hitherto published, we give the story in the words of Mr. E. B. 

 Phillips himself: "In about- 1850 I was in the fish-oil business in Boston. An elderly lady by the name of Bartlett, 

 from Blue Hill, Mr., came into my store with a sample of oil, which she had skimmed from the kettle in boiling men- 

 haden tor her hens. She told me that the lisli were abundant all summer near the shore, and I promised $11 per 

 barrel for all she could prod nee.. Her husband and sons made 13 barrels the first year, and the following year 100 

 barrels." 



