578 HISTORY AND METHODS OF THE FISHERIES. 
curing rather than to any inherent qualities of the fish. In many localities little care is bestowed 
upon them, and the fish are often allowed to become stale before they are salted. Again, they are 
frequently put upon the market in a half-cured and dirty state, so that their apyearance will 
prejudice one against them, even though their flavor may not have been seriously impaired. When 
properly cured they are undoubtedly of excellent flavor, and we see no reason why they will not 
compare favorably with the Northern mackerel, of which several hundred thousand barrels are 
consumed annually. , a é i) 
Up to 1870 no fresh mullet were shipped from Beaufort, N..C., all of those taken, with the excep- 
tion of the quautity used in the locality, being salted for sale among the farmers in the northeastern 
portion of the State. It seems that for many years the mullet fishermen of this region, after 
catching and salting their fish, have been in the habit of hiring vessel-owners to market them. As 
soon as the fishing season was over, the mullet were loaded upon these vessels, in charge of the 
captain, who was to exchange them for corn with the farmers living along the banks of the navigable 
streams tributary to the Carolina sounds. The captain was at liberty to make the exchange upon 
any basis that he might think proper, but as he was given a perceutage—usually one-fifth of the eorn 
received—for his services, he was apt to drive the best possible bargain. Five bushels of shelled 
corn for one barrel of mullet was considered a fair exchange, though the price varied somewhat 
from year to year. Having secured his cargo of fish, he usually set sail for some small town on 
one of the larger rivers, where he remained until all of the mullet were sold. The arrival of a 
“mullet-trader” soon becomes known among the residents of any locality, and the farmers of the 
region at once load their wagons with corn and start for the landing to secure their fish. This 
practice has continued to the present time, and even now a large percentage of the mullet salted 
by the fishermen of Core and Bogue Sounds are marketed in this way, only a small part of the 
catch being sold for cash at Beaufort and Morehead City, though the merchants and others are 
anxious to purchase at fair prices. Those marketed in Beaufort are usually shipped by rail to the 
larger cities of Eastern North Carolina or to Norfolk, from which points they are redistributed to 
the farming districts. Probably nine-tenths of the mullet taken in North Carolina waters are 
consumed in the eastern half of that State. When money is received, the price paid to the 
fisherman is $2.75 to $3.50 per barrel of regulation size, which is supposed to contain 100 pounds 
of fish. - 
In the spring of 1870 a small trade in fresh fish began. This business increased slowly at first, 
but of late it has grown with remarkable rapidity, and during the year ending with June, 1880, fully 
40,000 bunches, equal to about 150,000 pounds, of mullet, in addition to large quantities of other 
fish, were shipped fresh to the larger cities of the Carolinas and Georgia. The price paid to the 
fishermen at Beaufort ranges from 2 to 4 cents per pound. 
At Wilmington, as at Beaufort, nearly all of the mullet taken in former years were salted. 
The farmers of this region made a practice of driving down to the fishing shores each season to 
obtain their supply for family use. Many of them came a distance of 30 to 40 miles. Some brought 
corn and other produce to exchange for the fish, while others brought the money with which to 
purchase them. ‘The price paid averaged about $3 per barrel, less the value of the package, which | 
the farmer usually did not care to purchase. Of late years, owing to the large demand for fresh : 
fish, few mullet are salted in this locality, and it is stated on good authority that during 1879 not 
over 50 barrels were put up for shipment within a radius of 15 miles of Wilmington, though at. 
distances more remote, owing to a difficulty of marketing the fish fresh, many were salted. . The 
“roe mullet” usually find ready sale at an average of 124 cents each. The “fat mullet” are 
strung in bunches of from 2 to 4 each, according to size, and sold at from 15 to 20 cents, A bunch 
