282 



FISHERIES OF THE UNITED STATES, 1908. 



The Atlantic coast division reported 66 per cent of 

 the total value of products; the Pacific coast division, 

 23 per cent; the Gulf of Mexico division, 8 per cent; 

 the Great Lakes division, nearly 3 per cent; and the 

 Mississippi River division, less than 1 per cent. Of 

 the value of all salmon treated in continental United 

 States, 90 per cent represents the value of salmon pre- 

 pared by the canneries and packing houses of the 

 Pacific coast states. The Atlantic coast division is 

 credited with 96 per cent of the sardines as measured 

 by value, 90 per cent of the cod, 52 per cent of the 

 oysters, and 84 per cent of the sturgeon prepared in 

 the United States. Nearly all of the hake, mackerel, 

 and herring (exclusive of lake herring), and all of the 

 alewives, haddock, and pollack were put up in the At- 

 lantic coast states. The Gulf states reported 45 per 

 cent of the oyster product and almost the entire shrimp 

 and prawn product. All the lake herring output was 

 from the canning houses of the Great Lakes division. 



Table 1, on page 286, gives the value of the food 

 products, by species and by method of treatment. 

 The canned product exceeded in value the product 

 treated by any other method used in preparing fishery 

 products for market. Of the total value of food prod- 

 ucts — $24,885,000 — 57 per cent represents canned 

 product; 14 per cent, boned; 11 per cent, smoked; 

 10 per cent, salted; 7 per cent, pickled; and 1 per 

 cent, frozen. 



Table 2, on pa*ge 287, distributes the quantity and 

 value of all products of the industry according to 

 method of treatment and kind of product, for conti- 

 nental United States and for each geographic division. 

 The by-products of the canneries and packing houses, 

 consisting of fertilizer, oil, glue, etc., had a value in 

 1908 of $3,517,000. On account of the importance of 

 some of these as articles of commerce, they are shown 

 in detail, by geographic divisions and by states, in the 

 following table: 



i Includes a value of $150,000 reported for isinglass. 



Of the total value of products other than food re- 

 ported by the fish and oyster canneries and packing 

 houses, 35 per cent represents the value of the fer- 

 tilizer manufactured. The Atlantic coast states con- 

 tributed 98 per cent and Virginia alone 50 per cent of 

 the value of the fertilizer produced by these establish- 

 ments. 



Another important by-product of this industry was 

 fish oil, for which a value of $854,000 was reported, or 

 24 per cent of the total for products other than food. 

 Virginia led, with an output valued at 38 per cent of 

 the value of all fish oil reported by the establishments 

 under consideration. The manufacture of fish glue 

 was confined to three states — Massachusetts, Maine, 



and California — 95 per cent of the value of the output 

 being credited to Massachusetts. All the isinglass re- 

 ported, valued at $150,000, was from Massachusetts. 



The preceding statistics are confined to the fish can- 

 ning and preserving establishments of continental 

 United States, and do not include Alaska. In the 

 remainder of the chapter, which is devoted to a pre- 

 sentation in detail of the data for the leading prod- 

 ucts, statistics of the Alaskan output have been 

 included. 



Salmon. — The table following shows, for the United 

 States, inclusive of Alaska, the quantity and value of 

 the salmon treated in 1908, distributed according to 

 method of treatment bv states. 



