FISHERIES OF THE GREAT LAKES IN 1885. 123 



happens to be a surplus. The catfish aud bull-heads and a great many 

 of the perch are dressed aud skinned before shipment. 



Manufacture of salt- fish packages. — A considerable industry has sprung 

 up at Green Bay, De Pere, and \lenashain the manufacture of wooden 

 packages for salt fish. They are made of clear white pine with flat 

 hoops of black or swamp ash. The material is obtained between No- 

 vember and April by the farmers, who go into the woods for the purpose 

 and earn $2 a day at this business. In addition to three large firms, 

 several private coopers devote themselves to the manufacture of fish- 

 barrels and kits. 



The firms at De Pere and Menasha are wooden-ware companies, and 

 the supplying of the fish trade constitutes only about one-sixth of their 

 business. The total amount invested in this business in the three towns 

 is $22,000. About a dozen men work on fish packages, making alto- 

 gether 22,000 half-barrels, 52,000 quarter-barrels, and 400,000 kits or 

 pails with handles. 



Statistics. — In 1885 the fisheries of that portion of Brown County un- 

 der consideration gave employment to 25 professional aud 58 semi-pro- 

 fessional fishermen and to 30 shoresmen and preparators, the dependent 

 population amounting to several hundred persons. The four collecting 

 tugs were worth $11,000, and there were in addition 8 pound-net boats, 4 

 seine-boats, and 32 other boats, the value of these amounting to $1,240. 

 The number of gill-nets was 260, of pound-nets 7, of seines 7, and of 

 fyke nets 215. The value of the apparatus of capture, including set- 

 lines, was $6,068. The cash capital was $15,200, that invested in build- 

 ings $4,225, and that in accessories and fixtures $5,860. The products 

 consisted of 365,000 pounds of pike and pickerel, 2,200 pounds of stur- 

 geon, 310,000 pounds of fresh herring, 50,000 pounds of salt herring, 

 150,000 pounds of catfish and bull-heads, 480,000 pounds of perch, 245,- 

 000 pounds of suckers or bay-fish, 18,200 pounds of other fresh fish, and 

 6,000 pounds of mixed salted fish, mostly bay-fish. 



Pound-net fishery. — This fishery is of small proportions, being lim- 

 ited entirely to a few pound-nets set just east of the mouth of Fox 

 Eiver. One of them is owned by a man who resides between Bay Set- 

 tlement and Namur, and is therefore included in the statistics of that 

 section. The pound-nets of this section have pots from 12 to 14 feet 

 deep and 14 feet square, with a 3-inch mesh. The leader is usually 

 about 990 feet in length. The boats used in fishing them are flat-bot- 

 tomed and square-sterued, about 22 feet long, with a 6-foot beam, a stern 

 4 feet broad, and a long, sharp-pointed bow. They are worth about $75 

 each. 



Gill-net fishery.— Gill-nets are fished through the ice from the 1st of 

 January till after the middle of March, in the mouth of the Fox River, 

 and as far north as Little Suamico on both sides of the bay aud in the 

 deep water. Most of the fishermen belong at Green Bay City and Fort 

 Howard, but there are several at Yelp, Big Suamico, aud De Pere, and 



