THE MENHADEN FISHERY. 357 
Captain Crandall, of Watch Hill, R. I., thinks $2 to the thousand a fair estimate for 1873 and 
1874. Captain Beebe, of Niantic, Conn., agrees with this, giving $2.50 for previous years. Mr. 
R. E. Ingham, of Saybrook, says $1.25 to $2. Mr. Miles says that in 1873 the prices ranged from 
$1 to $2.50, according to the yield of oil. Mr. F. Lillington, of Shatford, puts it for 1875 at from 
$1.50 to $2. Captain Sisson, of Greenport, says that in 1873 the price was $2.25; in previous 
years, $1.75; in 1874 the price was lower. Collector Havens, of Sag Harbor, N. Y., estimates it 
at 30 cents per barrel. In the vicinity of Atlantic City, N. J.. M. A. G. Wolf gives the price at 
$1.25 to the thousand; and Mr. Albert Morris, of Somers Point, at 39 cents per barrel (about $1.50 
to the thousand). Mr. Hance Lawson, of Crisfield, Md., states that the Chesapeake factories pay 
15 cents per bushel.* Mr. Dudley says that in 1877 the average price in the Chesapeake was 50 
cents a thousand. 
PRICES PROPORTIONATE TO AMOUNT OF OIL CONTAINED IN FISH.—These prices are simply 
those paid for fish used in the manufacture of oil and guano, the prices of those sold for bait or 
food being given under other heads. No satisfactory conclusions can be drawn from these state- 
ments except the very general one that the fish are more valuable on the eastern than on the south- 
ern coast of New England; in Maine bringing from $2.40 to $3.20 to the thousand; on Long Island 
Sound, $1 to $2.25. As the expense of capture is necessarily as great in Southern as in Northern 
waters, we must seek the reason of the difference in price either in the methods of manufacture, the 
abundance of the fish, or in the intrinsic value of the fish for the purposes of the manufacturer. 
OIL YIELD OF NORTHERN FISH PRIOR TO 1879.—On the first arrival of the schools in North- 
ern waters the fish are thin and do not yield a large quantity of oil; but they rapidly gain until the 
time of their departure in the fall, so that the late fishing is by far the most profitable. It is the 
general opinion of fishermen that Northern fish yield a larger proportionate amount of oil than 
Southern. 
Mr. Sargent, of Castine, Me., says that 3 quarts of oil to the barrel is the smallest yield he 
has ever known from the first school, and 6 gallons the most from the last school.. When the fish 
are very poor, about the Ist of June, it takes 250 to make 1 gallon of oil; when poor, in July, 
200; when fat, in August, 150; when very fat, in October, 100. About 1 ton of scrap is obtained 
in making 3 barrels of oil. Mr. Condon states that when the fish arrive in the spring they will pro- 
duce but 1 gallon to the barrel, while in October the yield is 4 or 5 gallons; the average for the 
season being 3 gallons. Mr. Friend states that the least yield, in June, is 2 quarts to the barrel; - 
the greatest, in August, 4 gallons. Mr. Kenniston states that May fish yield 3 pints to the barrel; 
October fish, 6$ gallons. These are no doubt intended as the extreme figures. The average yield 
is 23 gallons to the barrel, an estimate in which Mr. Brightman concurs, though placing the lowest 
at 3 quarts; the highest, in August and September, at 4 gallons. He estimates the yield of a ton 
of scrap at 30 to 40 gallons, according to the season. Judson Tarr & Co. put the early fish at less 
* than a gallon, the September fish at 4 gallons to the barrel. Mr. Babson thinks that the early fish 
yield about a gallon, the last 4 gallons; an estimate in which he is confirmed by Mr. E. B. Phillips. 
Mr. Erskine Pierce, of Dartmouth, Mass., states that in 1877 the average yield at his factory 
was 14 gallons to the barrel. 
According to Mr. Church, the fish are fattest generally in the fall, though after a warm winter 
he has known them, after the first arrival, to yield 24 gallons. After a cold winter the opposite is 
true; and he has seen them so poor in the summer that out of 100 barrels of fish not a pint of oil 
could be extracted. The first 18,000 barrels taken by Church & Co., on the coast of Maine, in 1873, 
did not make over 14,000 gallons of oi] (about 3 quarts to the barrel). On Narragansett Bay, in 
1873, the yield was 13 gallons less than on the coast of Maine; on Long Island Sound, half a gallon. 
“About 50 cents per barrel, or $2 to the thousand. 
