616 HISTORY AND METHODS OF THE FISHERIES. 
Shipyard Reach, three-feurths of a mile long; (5) Clapboard Reach, 1 mile long; (6) Yellow 
Bluff Reach, half a mile long; and (7) Baxter’s Reach, 7 miles long, from Reddy’s Bluff to 
Jacksonville. .« 
“The nets are worked both on the ebb and flood tide, though the latter is preferable, from the 
fact that the fish ascending the stream ‘gill’ easily in the net drifting in the opposite direction, 
while the net floating behind them with the flood overtakes them with difficulty. Sometimes the 
boats make two drifts on one tide, sailing back a second time to the head of the reach. Often 
there are many nets on one reach. In this case they take turns, the first set belonging to the 
boat which first gains the head of the reach. 
“Averaging the eighty nets at 2,500 shad each, which seems to be a fair estimate in the opinion 
of Mr. Kemps, Mr. Buckle, Mr. Balsam, and Mr. Kelly, of New Berlin, we have the estimated yield 
of 200,000 shad for the Saint John’s for the season of 1877~78. The results of the previous season, 
1876~77, obtained by a similar method, probably did not fall much below 280,000, while 1875~76, 
1874~75, and 1873-74 the yield was about 160,000 or less. 
“Mr. Yate estimated independently that the catch of 187778 amounted to 200,000, and that 
of 1876~’77 100,000 additional. 
“Melton & Co. handled about 80,000 shad in 1877~78, of which about 20,000 were sent north. 
In 1876~'77 they handled about 120,000. In 1875, at the time of my second visit to Florida, Mr. 
Melton estimated the quantity handled by him in the season just past, that of 187475, at 125,000. 
“ Kemps, Mead & Smith handled, in 187778, 35,000 to 40,000 shad; in 1876~’77 about 60,000, 
of which 40,000 were sent north. In my own judgment, the shipments to Northern markets in 
1876~77 cannot have fallen far short of 100,000 fish, and in 187778 probably approximated 60,000. 
“The fishermen who work the shad-nets are employed on shares, the boat and net being 
furnished by the fish-dealers, the fishermen receiving from 8 to 12 cents for each shad they catch. 
Ten cents is perhaps a fair average rate. The most successful net at New Berlin in 1878 took 
4,000 shad ; the least successful, an old net worked by two negroes, took 900. The two fishermen 
netted in the first instance $200 each, in the last $45 each. The average profit in the last instance 
was probably $150, in 1878 not more than $100, a very meager return for four months’ labor, after 
board bills, cost of fishing-clothes, and passage money are deducted. 
“The cost of the fish to the dealers is rather hard to determine. The boats cost $60 and the 
nets $125. The boats last five or six years, the nets hardly more than one season. Allowing $15 
for wear of boat and interest on its price, and $100 for the net, we find that, independent of their 
own subsisting and the cost of maintaining their establishments throughout the year, the actual 
cost of catching the fish, which falls to the share of the fishery capitalist, amounts to 45 cents on 
each fish. Thus, at the very lowest estimate, the cost of bringing the fish from the water into the 
boats cannot fall much below 15 cents. These fish retail in the local markets for 25 cents each, 
small ones sometimes selling for 20. The cost of shipping to a Northern market is considerable. 
Let us take the extreme example of New York City. When shad are iced for the Northern 
markets they are packed in tierces which contain about 140 fish. To pack a tierce of fish 
properly requires 250 or 300 pounds of ice. Ice costs, perhaps, $12 per ton, *botight from. the 
Northern schooners. Allowing for waste, we will estimate the cost of ice for a tierce of fish at 
$2. The tierce is worth at least $1. Expressage to Savannah costs $3 on each tierce, and freight 
by steamer to New York $2. Thus, making no allowance for cartage or labor of packing, at the 
end of the route we must add $8 to the cost of a tierce full of shad, or 5 cents and 7 mills 
each. The cost of fish delivered in New York is 21 cents, and perhaps more. But then we must 
take into account the severe losses necessarily sustained by dealers in such perishable wares as 
