768 HISTORY AND METHODS OF THE FISHERIES. 



Average number of stnackmen employed 6 



Total number of persons employed, including the men engaged in the manufacture of 



lobster cans in Portland 77 



Number of pounds of live lobsters used 305,000 



Amount paid to the fishermen for the same $3, 050 



Number of 1-pound cans of lobsters put up 51,600 



Number of 2-pound cans of lobsters put up 7,800 



Enhancement in value of lobsters in process of canning $4,713 



Value of the canned lobsters |7,7C3 



Summation of the entire lobster induttri/ in Portland and Falmouth district in 1830, not including tlie Portland wholesale 



market, 



Total number of persons employed, including the men engaged in the manufacture of 

 lobster cans in Portland 274 



Total amount of capital invested, including the capital employed in handling the 

 canned lobsters in Portland $83,736 



Total value of the products as they entered into consumption f 16,599 



SACO DISTRICT. 



This district includes the lobster stations of Bidcleford Pool and Pine Point. 



Biddeford Pool is the most important lobster-fishing station of Maine west of Portland. 

 Fishing is kept up more or less continuously throughout the year, with a break from August to 

 November. During the warmer mouths th traps are set about the islauds of the vicinity, and 

 outside of them to a distance of about 2 miles ; but in cold weather, when the lobsters move off 

 shore, the traps are shifted farther out, being often set as far off as 7 miles to the east and south- 

 cast of Wood Island, in depths of 20 to 40, or even 50, fathoms. In the deeper waters a greater 

 proportion of large lobsters are taken. The bait used consists of several species of small common fish, 

 including hake, brim, and small cod. In 1880 twenty-one men were engaged in this industry, using 

 sixteen small boats, and twelve hundred and sixty pots. The catch for that year amounted to 130,000 

 lobsters, valued at $6,950. Several of the fishing schooners owned at this place also participated in 

 the lobster fishery, making a total catch of 51,000 lobsters, valued at $2,700. At Goose Rocks, be- 

 tween Biddeford Pool and Cape Porpoise, five men, with three sail boats, took, during the same year, 

 45,000 lobsters, valued at $2,250. Of the twenty-one boat lobstermen from Biddeford Pool, eleven 

 follow lobster fishing for ten months of the year, and ten for only five months, the latter engaging in 

 other kinds of boat fishing during the summer. 



The larger lobsters are mostly shipped to Boston and New York by rail, packed in barrels of 

 140 pounds each. The principal market for small lobsters is Portland, where they are canned. 

 Soft lobsters, when obtained in quantity, are also sent to the latter place for canning. The prices 

 are about 5 cents apiece for the large lobsters, sent to the fresh markets, and 1 cent each for the 

 small ones, sent to the canneries. 



Lobsters are eaten to a certain extent by the poorer people of the neighborhood, during the 

 summer, when the small ones cost about the same price per pound as the commoner food fish of 

 the same region. During other seasons they are too expensive and too much in demand for the 

 larger markets. 



The lobster fishermen do some codfishing during a portion of the year, and some of them also 

 belong to the life saving station located near the Pool. 



PINE POINT. About ten men from this place fish for lobsters during six months every year, 

 setting their pots from Cape Elizabeth on the east to Wood Island on the west. They use ten 

 dories, and six hundred pots, and in 1880 made a total catch of 32,400 lobsters, valued at $1,620. 



