290 NEW ENGLAND FISHERIES 



and the fresh halibut of Alaska in open competition, in 

 Boston and New York markets, with Penobscot River 

 salmon and with halibut fresh from the banks. 



The sardine industry of Maine has an annual value into 

 the millions of dollars to-day. This means that a cheap 

 food fish has been prepared that is palatable in all climates 

 for months after it has been put up. Previous to its 

 use as sardines, the small herring had little commercial 

 importance. The enhanced value that the fish receives at 

 the canneries not only makes the industry so important 

 that it will be continued as long as the fish are in abun- 

 dance but, economically, it represents something saved for 

 mankind, a new fish-food added to the list that was a com- 

 paratively short one while the cod and mackerel held the 

 monopoly. The canning industry has become an important 

 element in breaking up the old monopoly. Cod and mack- 

 erel cannot compete against cheap fish-foods and thrive 

 as formerly. The amount of capital required to carry on 

 the deep-sea fisheries makes that impossible. So it is with 

 other fish that are now found in the markets, the shad, 

 the scup, the bluefish, the squeteague, the swordfish, the 

 scallop and other kinds, so great a variety is now offered 

 to the purchaser that he will pass by mackerel worth 

 twenty-five cents and buy a cheaper kind of fish. The 

 herring family inhabit the ocean in incomputable masses. 

 From this one family, several cheap products appear in 

 the markets, the hard and bloater herring, the sardine, 

 the alewives, and the shad, so numerous that people who 

 formerly never thought of resorting to them now find them 

 a pleasant substitute for the standard deep-sea fish. 



To these domestic forms of competition must be added 

 the unnatural, and to some extent unnecessary, competi- 

 tion from the fisheries of the British Provinces. The terms 

 of the Reciprocity Treaty, which was in force from 1854 

 until 1866, were favorable to the provincial fishermen. 



