INSHORE FISHERIES 



209 



tations of smoked herring from the British Provinces, 

 which, by the terms of the treaty, were admitted free of 

 duty, that in 1880 the output of the entire State of Maine 

 was only 370,615 boxes, valued at $99,973. In the mean- 

 time the imports increased from 1,029,095 pounds, valued 

 at $34,670, in 1874, to 10,441,355 pounds, valued at $129,034 

 in 1885. 1 



In the last quarter century, the smoked herring indus- 

 try has increased about four-fold in the quantity of herring 

 used, and about three-fold in the value of the product. 2 

 The condition of the industry to-day is better than ever 

 before. The business is carried on exclusively in Wash- 

 ington County in the vicinity of Eastport and Lubec. 

 When herring for this purpose used to be secured in abun- 

 dance from the Magdalen Islands, the business of smoking 

 the fish was carried on in towns farther to the 

 west. In 1880, for example, one-fifth of the business was 

 carried on in counties west of Washington County, in the 

 vicinity of Frenchman's Bay and Portland, principally. 



lAnsley Hall, The Herring Industry of Passamaquoddy Region, 

 Maine. 



2 The following table gives the total quantity and value of the 

 herring prepared by fishermen, canners, and regular smokers, in 

 Maine for each year from 1880 to 1906 for which statistics are avail- 

 able. 



* Statistics of the Fisheries of the New England States for 1905, 

 p. 39. 



