152 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 
at each end. The water is first brought to a boiling heat before the 
shrimp are put into the vat, and they are allowed to boil about 10 min- 
utes. They are then spread to dry upon gently declining or level 
stretches of hard ground which has been previously stripped of grass 
and rendered perfectly smooth. The shrimp yard at Hunter’s Point is 
about 15 acres in extent. The Chinese use a hoe-like broom to spread 
the shrimp and to turn them as occasion requires. After being thor- 
oughly dried by 4 or 5 days’ exposure to the sun, they are crushed under 
large wooden pestles or trod upon by the Chinese in wooden shoes for 
the purpose of loosening the meats from the outer chitinous covering. 
The shells are then removed from the meats by shaking the shrimp in a 
basket or by passing them through a winnowing mill. 
Mr. Katlibun says: 
This fanuiug-mi.il, which is rather a crude affair, is constructed of wood by the 
Chinese on precisely the same principle as the one used for wiunowing grain. It 
measures about 8 feet long by 5 feet high, and consists of a square box divided on 
the inside for the passage of the separated shells and meats, with a hopper above, 
and a large fan wheel worked by a crank on one side. 
Both meats and shells are then packed in sacks for exportation, 
though a small amount is sometimes reserved for local sale. All of 
the small and inferior kinds of fish are boiled, dried, and packed for 
exportation by nearly ttfe same method used for curing shrimp. 
Disposition of products , uses , etc . — The catch is partly used at home 
or sold at San Francisco or to the various inland Chinese settlements, 
but the great bulk of it goes to China. Shrimp shells have been util- 
ized to some extent in California as a fertilizer, but nearly all of this 
material, like the meats, is exported to China, where it serves as ma- 
nure for the tea plant, rice, etc. The usual price in San Francisco is 
25 cents per 100 pounds. The meats are eaten by all classes in China, 
but are cheaper and less esteemed than native shrimps, which are com- 
paratively scarce. Mention has been made of the utilization of certain 
products for feeding pigs and poultry. Shrimp, aud also shrimp shells, 
are often fed to fowls, and are said to produce excellent results. They 
are broken up quite fine, soaked, and mixed with cracked wheat, oat 
meal, or corn meal. 
Marketing . — The common custom is, at the end of each day’s fishing, 
to carry a part of the catch, including fresh shrimp, to the San Fran- 
cisco markets. The shrimp are transported alive in baskets; these are 
covered with netting having a central hole closed with a puckering 
string. The average price per pound of live shrimps is 10 cents; 
fresh fish fluctuate a good deal in value, and the price also varies with 
species. All that can not be sold in the market, or by hawking about 
the city, towns, or country, are taken back to the camps aud immedi- 
ately put through the process of boiling and drying for shipment 
abroad. Mr. Garibaldi estimated the value of shrimp sold at the Clay 
