FISHERIES OF THE NEW ENGLAND STATES. 
91 
The extensive industry dependent on the menhaden fishery is shown in Table 16. 
In Maine the figures represent the importance of the business in the second year 
of the reappearance of menhaden in the coast waters of that State, after an absence 
of about ten years, and indicate a revival of the extensive industry which formerly 
existed there. Already the State is only slightly behind Connecticut in the amount 
of capital invested and the quantity of fish utilized, and the continued annual occur- 
rence of large bodies of menhaden in this region will doubtless contribute to the rapid 
development of the business, if only reasonable restrictions are placed on the fishery. 
Rhode Island has much more important menhaden interests than both Maine and 
Connecticut combined. The returns for this State show $452,925 invested capital, 
177,133,333 menhaden utilized, 1,782,145 gallons of oil manufactured, and 7,397 tons of 
scrap made, the two latter articles having a value of $427,757, or more than two- thirds 
the amount accruing from the industry in New England. 
16. — Table showing the extent of the menhaden industry of the New England States in 1889. 
Maine 
Rhode Island . 
Connecticut . . 
Steam vessels employed. 
218. 22 
758. 45 
451. 80 
$32. 000 
133, 000 
61,500 
$8, 800 
27, 000 
10, 000 
Sail vessels employed. 
Total vessels employed. 
Netton- 
nage. 
398. 10 
146. 93 
41. 49 
$15, 950 
5, 325 
1,835 
$13, 065 
3, 600 
320 
616. 32 
905. 38 
493. 29 
$47, 950 
138, 325 
63, 335 
$21,865 
30,600 
10, 320 
Total 
21 1,428.47 226,500 45,800 
24 586.52 
23, 110 
16. 985 
45 2,014.99 249,610 
62, 785 
States. 
Factories in opera- 
tion. 
Total 
capital 
Number of 
persons 
employed. 
Menhaden 
handled. 
Oil manufactured. 
Scrap pre- 
pared. 
Total 
value of 
manu- 
factur- 
ed pro- 
ducts. 
No. 
Value. 
Cash 
capital. 
invested 
in the in- 
dustry. 
Fac- 
tory- 
men. 
Fish 
er- 
men. 
No. 
Price 
paid. 
Gallons. 
Value. 
Tons. 
Value. 
Maine 
Rhode Island . . 
Connecticut . . . 
Total 
3 
4 
4 
$22, 200 
208, 000 
83,200 
$20, 000 
76, 000 
25, 500 
$112, 015 
452, 925 
182, 355 
104 
358 
82 
195 
215 
133 
26, 057, 583 
177,133,333 
37, 360, 700 
$31, 269 
265, 700 
52, 927 
282, 465 
1, 782, 145 
233. 228 
$62, 409 
320, 743 
53, 110 
2, 305 
7, 397 
2,893 
24, 735 i 
107,014 1 
45,956 
$87, 144 
427, 757 
99,066 
11 313,400 
121, 500 
747, 295 
544 
543 
240,551,616 
349, 896 
2,297,838 
436,262 Il2, 595 
177,705 613,967 
Frozen-herring trade . — In the u Statistical Review of the Coast Fisheries of the 
United States,” covering the years 1887 and 1888, brief allusion was made to the frozen- 
herring trade, an industry which is now almost exclusively under the control of New 
England fishery capitalists. The importance of this trade to the fishing interests of the 
British Provinces and the United States is very great. The former are benefited by 
having the opportunity of selling products at remunerative prices, which otherwise 
could not find a satisfactory market in the winter season, while the vessels and men 
that are engaged in other branches of the American fisheries during the summer find 
profitable employment in winter in obtaining and marketing cargoes of frozen herring. 
These products are used for food and bait. The herring is a cheap and nutritious 
food. It is especially valuable when it can be obtained by the consumer in a perfectly 
fresh state, as is the case when it is marketed in a frozen condition. The value of 
herring for bait purposes is so well known as to obviate the necessity of more than a 
mere mention of it. It may not be so well understood, however, that adequate supplies 
of fresh herring could not be so easily and so cheaply obtained in any other manner. 
Allusion should be made to the uncertainties which render this trade one of the 
most hazardous, from a financial standpoint, in which men ordinarily engage. The two 
