616 HISTORY AND METHODS OF THE FISHERIES. 



Shipyard Reach, three-fourths of a mile long; (5) Clapboard Reach, 1 mile long; (6) Yellow 

 Bluff Reach, half a mile long; and (7) Baxter's Reach, 7 miles long, from Reddy's Bluff to 

 Jacksonville. 



" The nets are worked both on the ebb and flood tide, though the latter is preferable, from the 

 fact that the fish Ascending the stream 'gill' easily in the net drifting in the opposite direction, 

 while the net floating behind them with the flood overtakes them with difficulty. Sometimes the 

 boats make two drifts on one tide, sailing back a second time to the head of the reach. Often 

 there are many nets on one reach. In this case they take turns, the first set belonging to the 

 boat which first gains the head of the reach. 



"Averaging the eighty nets at 2,500 shad each, which seems to be a fair estimate in the opinion 

 of Mr. Kemps, Mr. Buckle, Mr. Balsam, and Mr. Kelly, of New Berlin, we have the estimated yield 

 of 200,000 shad for the Saint John's for the season of 1877-'78. The results of the previous season, 

 1876-'77, obtained by a similar method, probably did not fall much below 280,000, while 1875-'7G, 

 1874->75, and 1873-'74 the yield was about 160,000 or less. 



"Mr. Yate estimated independently that the catch of 1877-'78 amounted to 200,000, and that 

 of 1876-'77 100,000 additional. 



" Melton & Co. handled about 80,000 shad in 1877-'78, of which about 20,000 were sent north. 

 In 1876-'77 they handled about 120,000. In 1875, at the time of my second visit to Florida, Mr. 

 Melton estimated the quantity handled by him in the season just past, that of 1874-'75, at 125,000. 



" Kemps, Mead & Smith handled, in 1877-'78, 35,000 to 40,000 shad ; in 1876-'77 about 60,000, 

 of which 40,000 were sent north. In my own judgment, the shipments to Northern markets in 

 1876-'77 cannot have fallen far short of 100,000 fish, and in 1877-'78 probably approximated 60,000. 



"The fishermen who work the shad-nets are employed on shares, the boat and net being 

 furnished by the fish dealers, the fishermen receiving from 8 to 12 cents for each shad they catch. 

 Ten cents is perhaps a fair average rate. The most successful net at New Berlin in 1878 took 

 4,000 shad ; the least successful, an old net worked by two negroes, took 900. The two fishermen 

 netted in the first instance $200 each, in the last $45 each. The average profit in the last instance 

 was probably $150, in 1878 not more than $100, a very meager return for four months' labor, after 

 board bills, cost of fishing-clothes, and passage money are deducted. 



"The cost of the fish to the dealers is rather hard to determine. The boats cost $60 and the 

 nets $125. The boats last five or six years, the nets hardly more than one season. Allowing $15 

 for wear of boat and interest on its price, and $100 for the net, we find that, independent of their 

 own subsisting and the cost of maintaining their establishments throughout the year, the actual 

 cost of catching the fish, which falls to the share of the fishery capitalist, amounts to 4J cents on 

 each fish. Thus, at the very lowest estimate, the cost of bringing the fish Irom the water into the 

 boats cannot fall much below 15 cents. These fish retail in the local markets for 25 cents each, 

 small ones sometimes selling for 20. The cost of shipping to a Northern market is considerable. 

 Let us take the extreme example of New York City. When shad are iced for the Northern 

 markets they are packed in tierces which contain about 140 fish. To pack a tierce of fish 

 properly requires 250 or 300 pounds of ice. Ice costs, perhaps, $12 per ton, bought from the 

 Northern schooners. Allowing for waste, we will estimate the cost of ice for a tierce of fish at 

 $2. The tierce is worth at least $1. Expressage to Savannah costs $3 on each tierce, and freight 

 by steamer to New York $2. Thus, making no allowance for cartage or labor of packing, at the 

 end of the route we must add $8 to the cost of a tierce full of shad, or 5 cents and 7 mills 

 each. The cost of fish delivered in New York is 21 cents, and perhaps more. But then we must 

 take into account the severe losses necessarily sustained by dealers in such perishable wares as 



