FISHERIES OF THE PACIFIC COAST. 
207 
wheels, and those who engage in dip-net fishing, carry on their work to 
some extent upon different terms from those which govern the gill net 
fishermen, though the practice of fixing the price at so much per fish 
seems to be the system in most general favor amongst all the canneries 
and fishermen. In the case of the wheels, however, there are no fisher- 
men, strictly speaking, since the apparatus is automatic and “pumps 
the fish out of the river.” Men are employed simply to look after the 
wheels and attend to the catch. 
The minimum size for “ count ” salmon caught in pound nets and slat 
weirs would appear to be 14 pounds, according to the testimony given 
before the Senate Committee on Relations with Canada (page 243, Re- 
port 1530, Fifty-first Congress). This is undoubtedly incorrect, and 
the error is perhaps due to a misprint. A “ standard salmon” is a chi- 
nook, and Wilcox learned that, while there may be some variation at the 
different canneries, the generally recognized standard of weight was 24 
pounds ; of course a fish that weighs more, even as high as 60 pounds, 
counts only as one salmon. Both fishermen and cannery agents become 
so expert in judging of the size of salmon that the weighing is almost 
wholly “ by the eye”; scales are seldom used to determine the weight, 
except in a few instances where the contract calls for the fish to be 
weighed and averaged. 
Eighty-eight per cent, of the people at the canneries are Chinese. 
Of the remainder, 34 are natives of various European countries and 
152 (including 15 women) were born in the United States. The whites 
are generally clerks, overseers, etc. Those who are interested in can- 
ning state that it would be difficult, if not impracticable, to supply the 
place of the Chinese in the canneries with white men who would be 
reliable and industrious and, at the same time, willing to work for only 
4 months of each year.* The majority of the Chinese “help” return 
to the canneries season after season, and it has been stated that “ a 
good Chinaman will make from $180 to $200 iu a season.” They labor 
largely on the piecework system, and this has proved satisfactory to 
employers and employes. 
Many of the Chinese work for $1 per day of 11 hours, “ and work 
as wanted, i. e., leaving when told and coming at any hour set, only 
the time in which they are actually engaged being counted.”! Some 
of the most capable receive $40 to $50 per month. The following con- 
dition at one cannery will, perhaps, give a good idea of the relative 
wages: This establishment had about 125 men; 30 were white men, of 
whom 10 were tinners and received $52.50 each per month ; two boilers 
were paid from $3.50 to $4.50 per day, and the others (18) got $1 per 
day; 20 Chinese tinners were paid $50 per month; Chinese cleaners, 
$25 per month; fillers, $30 per month, aud the remainder $1 per day 
when working. 
* See “Testimony taken by the Select Committee on Relations with Canada,” 
ed States Senate, Report 1530, Fifty -first Congress, first session, 
ordan and Gilbert. 
