xlii 



Tiveniy -ninth Annual Reim-t 



earlier date than usual, ^vith the result that a goodly supply of 

 somewhat immature herrings was placed on the markets, to the 

 detriment of more matured fish landed subsequently in the months of 

 July and August. These early fish are, however, very suitable for 

 kippering and for preserving in ice for almost immediate consumption, 

 and it would be an advantage if a larger proportion of them were so 

 treated. 



The total number of curing yards in operation was 992 — a decrease 

 of 11 as compared with the preceding year — and these afforded 

 employment to a veritable army of workers, the number being com- 

 puted at 43,600, and comprising 746 curers, 2590 coopers, 17,010 

 gutters and packers, the remainder comprising fish salesmen, clerks, 

 carters and labourers, persons engaged in making barrel staves, and 

 seamen employed on board vessels carrying cured fish and stave wood 

 and hoops and curing material. During the course of the season 

 these workers migrate from one district to another in hundreds, 

 according to the exigencies of the trade, while at the opening of the 

 English season the number of migrants to the South runs into 

 thousands. It is estimated that fully 3500 women belonging to various 

 parts of the Highlands and the Hebrides are employed on the East 

 Coast and in England in gutting and packing herrings. To these 

 women and their families their earnings as gutters are a welcome 

 source of income, as it frequently enables them to tide over a hard 

 winter in some degree of comfort. The moral and physical condi- 

 tions under which they follow their calling liave greatly improved 

 within recent years, thanks to the efforts of self-sacrificing agents 

 attached to the various religious denominations, while the sanitary 

 condition of the temporary dwellings occupied by them are under the 

 close supervision of officials specially appointed for the purpose. 



The total quantity of herrings cured last year was *2,328,874 barrels, 

 or 438,609 more than in 1909. These figures are the second highest 

 on record, and a perusal of the returns for the last hundred years 

 reveals the striking fact that during that period the figures have gone 

 up from 89,934 barrels to over 2,300,000 barrels— a result largely due to 

 the wise policy and careful supervision of the Commissioners of the 

 British White Herring Fishery. 



The fishermen again received excellent prices from the curers for 

 the fresh fish, but it is to be feared that the prices ruling on the Con- 

 tinent for cured fish were not proportionately high, and consequently 

 the curers must have experienced a bad season. 



The quantity cured on the East Coast was 1,347,836 barrels, or 

 nearly one quarter of a million barrels more than in the preceding 

 year; in Orkney it was 140,050 barrels, in Shetland 658,515 barrels, 

 and on the West Coast 183,318 barrels. 



On the East Coast the principal districts contributing to the total 

 were Fraserburgh (324,086 barrels), Peterhead (320,763), Wick 

 (250,674), Eyemouth (221,825), and Aberdeen (133,530). 



Shetland, as has been usual for some years, occupied the premier 



* It is well to explain that the forms obtained from the curers, from which these 

 statistics are compiled, give the number of barrels in a sea-stick state, i.e., before 

 they have been "pined," or allowed to settle down in the barrels, after which t\\Qy 

 are filled up again. The returns of herrings branded and exported, on the other 

 hand, represent the barrels after being filled up ready for sale. The quantity used 

 in the process of filling-up is estimated at from 20 to 25 per cent, of the whole. 



