282 HISTORY AND METHODS OF THE FISHERIES. 
sale to the vessels of the mackerel fleet not otherwise supplied. The number of baiters was five 
or six. 
The price of menhaden for bait varied with their abundance. In Gloucester, in 1873, according 
to Captain Babson, 60,000 barrels of round-fish made 20,000 barrels of slivers, worth $4 a barrel to 
the producer. At Marblehead the price in 1876 averaged $1 for fresh and $6 for salt bait; at 
Chatham, $1.50 fresh; at Nantucket, 50 to 75 cents; and at Martha’s Vineyard, 50 cents. In 
Narragansett Bay bait sold in 1871 for $1 to $1.50 per barrel, fresh. The regular price from 1867 
to 1877 at the mouth of the Merrimac River was $1 per barrel; probably 1,000 barrels of slivered 
fish were prepared in 1876, which sold for $5 a barrel. Boston and Gloucester vessels were 
accustomed to anchor at the mouth of the river and wait there for supplies of bait. At one time 
in 1877 there were probably twenty-five schooners waiting. 
The process of slivering and salting menhaden is described in the chapter on the menhaden 
fishery. 
The manner of preparing the slivered menhaden or other fish for toll-bait is very simple, and 
is essentially the same as that employed in early days, when it was the custom to grind up small 
mackerel for bait. Captain Atwood remarked in his testimony before the Fishery Commission at 
Halifax: “We now use menhaden for bait, but when [ first went fishing we did not do so; our 
practice then was to grind up small mackerel for the purpose. Any quantity of these mackerel 
were at that time to be had for the cost, and plenty are to be met there now. These fish were of 
no account then, and so we ground them up for bait. And when we could not obtain them we 
ground up what we call gurry, the inwards of the fish with the gills attached. American fisher- 
men, when they fish with hooks, use menhaden bait almost exclusively. The superiority of this 
over any other is proved by the fact that when they can’t get menhaden they won't take any 
other. At first mackerel fishermen were afraid of this bait; it was a very bony fish, and they even 
thought that if it was cut up for bait the mackerel would get sick of it owing to the number of 
bones. There is a species of fish belonging to this family found on our coast which is exceedingly 
fat; we call them blue-backed herrings;* and some prefer this fish for bait, as it is not so bony as 
menhaden, but when the mackerel got to be worth having, about everybody adopted menhaden 
for bait; it is the cheapest bait.” t 
To prepare menhaden for use in the mackerel fishery, the slivers are grourid up into a mush 
which is called “ ground bait.” The slivers are passed through a bait-mill, which is a machine 
somewhat resembling a farmer’s feed-cutter. The fish are thrown into the hopper, and, by the 
agency of a roller operated by a crank at the side of the mill, are passed through a complicated 
array of sharp knives arranged upon the sides of the mill, and in spiral rows upon the roller. The 
bait is usually ground at night by the watch on deck. As a rule, the bait is run through the mill 
twice in order to make it fine enough. When the vessel has no bait-mill, which at present is rarely 
the case, the fish are cut up with a hatchet or scalded with boiling water in atub. Bait-mills were 
first introduced about the year 1822. Prior to the introduction of the bait-mill all the bait was cut 
up at night with,the hatchet, by the watch, upon a chopping-block, which was a large flat-topped 
piece of wood resembling a butcher’s meat-block. The veterans of this fishery relate with great 
glee how they used to be kept awake all night by the pounding of the bait-cutter over their heads, 
and contrast the present usages with those of former days. When there was leisure in the day- 
time, three or four men would work at the block together, each chopping with his own hatchet. 
* The Glut-Herring, Saw-belly, or Kyack, Clupea estivalis Mitchill. 
+N. E. Atwood, Proceedings of the Halifax Commission, Appendix L, p. 42, September 19, 1877, 
