1871 .] 
293 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
The Alewife. 
The Alewife (Alosa tyrannus) belongs to the 
great family of herrings (Clupeklse), so numer¬ 
ous, and furnishing so large an amount of 
wholesome food as to be almost indispensable 
to man. It bears the name of Gaspereau in 
Canada, Buckie and Alewife in New England, 
and Herring in the Middle and Southern States. 
It generally keeps 
company with the 
shad, and by reason 
of its habit of breed¬ 
ing in brackish wa¬ 
ter, it is found in the 
•estuaries of many 
small streams from 
which the shad long 
since disappeared. 
The same causes 
which have destroy¬ 
ed the salmon and 
shad are operating 
to diminish the 
numbers of ale- 
wives, and in many 
streams once swarming with them, they are 
seldom or never seen. They are much more 
abundant along the coast of the Southern and 
Middle States, because there are fewer dams at 
the mouths of the streams. In New England, al¬ 
most every small stream, large enough to carry 
a mill of any kind, is dammed near its mouth, 
and very early these fish were cut off from their 
breeding-ground. They are still taken, how¬ 
ever, in nearly all the streams where shad are 
found, and in some brackish ponds where the 
shad were never known. In the South they 
are still so abundant that no thought of scar¬ 
city has ever been entertained. Farmers from 
the back country come down to the fishing- 
houses and carry away immense numbers every 
season. In the East 
they have disap¬ 
peared from a very 
large number of 
streams, and are 
only taken oc¬ 
casionally in seines 
drawn for other 
fish. They are so 
prolific, and a few 
still remain in so 
many of the 
streams, that they 
might be restored 
with much more 
fa,cility r than cither 
shad or salmon; 
and they have 
probably such a 
connection with 
the food supply of 
the young fry of 
these better kinds 
of fish, that they 
may be regarded as 
their forerunners. 
There arc several 
runs of the ale- 
wives, the earlier 
being the larger 
fish. They are from 
six inches to a foot in length, depending some¬ 
what upon their age, and the streams that they 
frequent. The average weight is about six 
ounces. They come on to the coast early in 
the spring,-and only visit freshwater for the 
purpose of spawning. The most of them disap¬ 
pear in June. The fry remain in the waters 
where they are hatched until November, or later, 
and then go to sea. At this time they are three 
or four inches long. If from any cause their 
exit is shut off and they are detained in fresh 
wafer, they do not grow much after this period. 
The Mode of Capture. —Although the ale¬ 
wife will take a bait, they are almost always 
captured in nets, pounds, or seines. Immense 
alewife. —(Alosa tyrannus.) 
numbers are taken in the pounds set for larger 
fish near the mouths of large rivers, and in small 
streams and ponds the seine is used. Where 
there is a fisli-way around a dam they are easily 
taken in scoop nets, at the foot of the rapid. 
Near Cross’s Mills, in Charlestown, R. I., there 
is a valuable alewife fishery that has not been 
much affected by the causes which have de¬ 
stroyed them in other places. The Charlestown 
ponds communicate with the sea only by a nar¬ 
row passage, which is frequently closed by the 
action of the waves, and has to be artificially 
opened. There are no large streams running 
into them, and the fish come in to shoot their 
spawn in the brackish water made by springs 
near the shore. The menhaden as well as the 
brittany cow .—(See pat )re 299.) 
alewives come into these ponds to spawn, and 
if the ponds are closed in winter, as sometimes 
happens, the menhaden are all killed while the 
other fish survive. A seine is used near the 
breach for the capture of the alewives.• If is 
about one hundred fathoms-long, and the mesh 
is l'| 8 inches in the bunt or'middle part. They 
are also taken in other parts of the pond, as the 
shoals make their appearance upon the surface 
of the water. About 100,000 fish are taken at 
all the fisheries, and the numbers are said not 
to be materially diminished. Owing to the bet¬ 
ter implements of capture more are probably 
taken than in the early days. They begin to 
come in as early as the 1st of March, but the 
main run is from the 
middle of April to 
the middle of May. 
Curing of the 
Fish. — In some 
places they are 
simply pickled, 
packed in barrels,. 
and sent to market. 
At the Charlestown 
ponds they arc salt¬ 
ed,smoked, and, to a 
considerable extent, 
sent to merchants 
in the villages of 
Rhode Island and 
Connecticut. Im¬ 
mediately after capture they are taken from the 
boats, washed clean, and salted whole in casks. 
The rule in salting is two quarts of Turk’s Island 
salt to one hundred fish. They remain in the 
pickle from three to five days, and are then re¬ 
moved to the smoke-house. To prepare them for 
smoking, a wand two feet long is thrust through 
the eyes of ten fish. These wands are sus¬ 
pended upon the ends on poles arranged for the 
purpose in the smoke-house. The smoke-house 
is purposely made small, say 8 or 10 feet square, 
and is built over a walled pit about 4 feet deep. 
It is about 8 feet between the joints, and accom¬ 
modates six or seven tiers of fish, which are 
arranged upon the poles about as close as they 
can hang. About ten thousand can be smoked 
at a time in one of 
these houses. The 
smoking continues 
two days. The fish 
are then ready for 
market, and are 
sent off as fast as 
they can be sold. 
Green wood of oak 
or hickory is pre¬ 
ferred for making 
the smoke, and the 
fire must be very 
gentle, so as not to 
heat the fish. 
Economical Re¬ 
sults. — The first 
fish sent to market 
are of the best 
quality, and bring 
about, three dollars 
a hundred. They 
are full of spawn, 
and quite fat, and 
are considered of 
better flavor than 
the late fish, which 
are sometimes 
taken after spawn¬ 
ing and are very 
poor. The price 
falls off until it reaches about a dollar a 
hundred, wholesale. They are. retailed from 
one to three cents a piece by the village deal¬ 
ers. The fresh fish are retailed to the farmers, 
and to all who come for them, at fifty cents a 
hundred. Rarely, they are so abundant that 
