FISHERIES, BY STATES. 



153 



The importance of Essex County in every item, 

 except shore and accessory property and cash, is 

 apparent. 



Comparison with previous canvasses. — By examina- 

 tion of the statistics for 1889, 1898, 1902, and 1905 

 presented in the following tabular statement, it will be 

 seen that at each successive canvass, except that of 

 1898, a larger value of products was reported than at 

 the preceding canvass, but that for the other items the 

 figures for 1908 are considerably less than those for 



1889. During the past decade, however, there has 

 been a gradual improvement in every respect, except 

 that the number of persons employed and the weight 

 of the catch decreased slightly from 1905 to 1908. 



Persons employed. — The following table shows the 

 distribution of the persons employed in the fisheries 

 of Massachusetts, by districts and by class of service, 

 for the state and for each county district: 



1 Exclusive of 943 proprietors not fishing. 



The number of persons employed in the fisheries of 

 Massachusetts formed 8 per cent of the total number 

 for the United States. Of the 42 shoresmen, 15 were 

 employed in the vessel fisheries and the remaining 27 

 in the shore and boat fisheries. While in the country 

 as a whole shore and boat fishermen outnumbered 

 vessel fishermen in the proportion of about three to 

 one, in Massachusetts the vessel fishermen were nearly 

 twice as numerous as the shore and boat fishermen, 

 forming 21 per cent of the total number of vessel fish- 

 ermen in the United States. Independent fishermen 

 throughout the country comprised 50 per cent of all 

 persons engaged in fishing, but in Massachusetts wage- 

 earners constituted 73 per cent of the persons employed. 

 This predominance of wage-earners was due to the 



2 Includes provisions furnished to the value of $103,000, 



vessel fisheries, for in the shore and boat fisheries the 

 number of proprietors and independent fishermen was 

 more than twice the number of persons working for 

 wages or salaries. 



Essex County reported 28 per cent of the proprie- 

 tors and independent fishermen and 46 per cent of the 

 total number of employees in the state. Of the wage- 

 earners in the vessel fisheries, Essex County had 51 

 per cent, but it had onlyl8 per cent of the wage-earners 

 in the shore and boat fisheries. In the latter class of 

 fisheries 64 per cent of the wage-earners were reported 

 by the southern counties included under the head 

 "All other counties." 



Suffolk County showed the same predominance of 

 wage-earners as Essex County, but the total number 



