The Penobscot Marine Museum in Searsport introduced a two-year exhibit this year called “Sardineland.” This has been a major success and increased the number of visitors to the Museum this summer. This industry started in the mid-1870s and thrived for decades, despite its ups and downs. The following are references from the “Maine Industrial Journal,” published in Bangor from 1880 till 1918. I have included all the articles on sardines, but also left the ones on canning as there was a close relationship between them all. This will probably take a several issues to complete, even though I will only do the 1880s.
1880
9 April 1880, Friday
Page 357.
A sardine factory has just been started at Camden by New York parties. They expect to put up 5,000 boxes a day when they get fully underway.
30 July
Page 204.
The Ellsworth American says: A company of wealthy gentlemen have purchased land in Milbridge of Captain William P. Sawyer and are to build a wharf 60 feet wide running to the channel, near the steamboat wharf. They are to erect a sardine factory on the wharf 125 feet long and two stories high, the whole to be completed by the first of next March. They are contracting with the owners of weirs to furnish herring at a certain price for two years. I believe the price agreed upon is $200 per hhd. They will employ about 300 hands in the manufacture of sardines.”
Page 236.
There are at present eight sardine factories in Eastport, running full blast, night and day, turning out weekly about 3,500 cases ready for market and giving employment to about six hundred hands, male and female. The pay roll of these factories foots up to some $6,000 per week. During the past two months there has been an abundant supply of fish and the prospects are excellent for a good fall’s work. In a few weeks there will be three more factories added to the number, which will give employment to about 150 more hands.
1881
22 April
Page 252.
The steamer NELLIE KANE recently built in Brewer under the charge of Captain S. H. Barbour has departed this week to Lamoine where she will be used by the Sardine Packing Company.
19 August
Page 108.
At the sardine factory they have had more fish than they could take care of most of the time since the first of July. They now employ 225 to 250 hands – pay out for help $1,200 o $1,500 a week, and $400 or $500 for fish. About two hundred cases are packed each day. Sardines are put up in three ways – in pure olive (not cotton seed) oil, in mustard and in vinegar; and mackerel in two ways – in tomato sauce and in mustard. A case contains 100 boxes of sardines or 24 large boxes of mackerel. [Machias Republican]
1882
6 January
Page 12.
The sardine factories at Eastport have nearly all closed. No fish last week was what caused the sudden shut down. Some will remain closed during the winter, while others intend to run when they can get fish. Work will be resumed in the can shops after New Years.
13 January
Page 28.
The Eastport Sentinel says the cold snap of the past few days has been worth many thousands of dollars to the fishermen. The herring in large schools made their appearance along the North Shore and at St. Andrew’s Bay last week, and the fishermen made good hauls.
* * * * *
The packing business in Maine has reached immense proportions. There are 61 corn-canning establishments, with an annual production of about 11,350,000 cans. The packing of fish is roughly estimated at 1,500,000 cans of lobster, 750,000 cans of mackerel and 250,000 cans of clams annually. The sardine business, which had its origin four or five years ago in a small shop at Eastport, has attained vast proportions, there now being fifteen or more factories in operation at different points in the State and others are projected. Several factories are also quite extensively engaged in the canning of meats, chiefly mutton. Others are at present canning apples, while immense quantities of blueberries and other small fruits are put up at the various establishments throughout the State during the summer season.
20 January
Page 44.
Fourteen vessels loaded at St. Andrews Bay and Eastport with frozen herring during the cold week, besides the steamer FALMOUTH, which was heavily loaded on her Thursday’s trip, taking from Eastport 1,080 barrels or 400,000 herring, making in all2,800,000, for which there was paid to the fishermen between $14,000 and $15,000. [Sentinel]
27 January
Page 58.
Robbinston is to have a sardine factory.
* * * * *
Wolff & Ressing talk of enlarging their sardine factory at Milbridge.
3 February
Page 73.
EASTERN INDUSTRIES
There are 28 sardine factories on the Maine coast, situated as follows: 18 at Eastport; 4 at Lubec; 3 at Jonesport; 1 at Robbinston; 1 at Milbridge and 1 at Lamoine.
10 February
Page 91.
EASTERN INDUSTRIES
The Eastport Sentinel says the products of the sardine industry in this section of the State will amount to not far from one million dollars. The number of cases packed during the past year is probably about double that of the year before, while the price per case is about one-half of that realized the previous year. The factories are owned by New York and Eastport parties.
17 February
Page 106.
EASTERN INDUSTRIES
Rockland is to have a mackerel-canning factory in the spring.
Page 107.
The Charlotte correspondent of the Pembroke Herald says: The consumption of charcoal at the sardine factories in Eastport has made the manufacture of charcoal quite a business here for a small town. There were burned here last year and almost wholly for the Eastport market, 45,000 bushels, which required to make it, 1,100 cords of wood. Among the largest burners were Mr. Asa Phipps, who burned about 7,000 bushels and Mr. Isaac Gardner, Mr. Risbell, Mr. A. Annas, Mr. W. H. Ayer, Mr. Haynes and others who burned from two to five thousand bushels each. This coal would bring after reaching the market something over $7,000.
24 February
Page 122.
The affairs of J. Winslow Jones have been so far settled up that many of the packing factories along the Maine coast will start up once more in April.
* * * * *
Wolff & Ressing at Milbridge have about 50 hands at work making cans. They will use this winter about 100 tons of tin, lead, etc. in the can business.
* * * * *
- A. Dyer & Company of Portland have leased the premises formerly occupied by the Portland Packing Company at Oceanville, Deer Isle and are arranging to do a large business the coming season in canning lobsters, clams and mackerel.
3 March
Page 140.
EASTERN INDUSTRIES
Messrs. G. E. Deering & Company have taken a five-year lease of the large three-story building on the corner of Commercial wharf and Commercial Street, Portland and are fitting it up for the fish canning business.
10 March
Page 155.
Green’s Landing, Deer Isle, is a busy little place. Nine granite quarries are in operation, employing during the summer season about 120 men. There are two canning factories which, in the season, can lobsters, mackerel, cod, haddock, eels and clams, employing about 200 men, women and children, paying out for wages, fish, etc., upwards of $50,000 per year. An immense quality of fresh lobsters are also barreled and shipped to Boston. It is also one of the finest places on the coast for a summer resort, having splendid views, good drives, boating and fishing. A good hotel is needed, but there is talk of building one during the coming season.
17 March
Page 169.
EASTERN INDUSTRIES
The Grand Manan fishermen report business better this season than for five years previous. Herring and codfish are in abundance and are being pickled and shipped in vast quantities.
* * * * *
The Machias Republican says that Messrs. Lawrence & Dodge have been running their sardine factory at North Lubec to its full capacity for the past few weeks. Herring have been abundant at a low price.
Page 171-172.
AN IMPORTANT MAINE INDUSTRY
The Canning of Vegetable, Fruit, Meats and Fish–The Sardine Industry
[Correspondence to the Boston Journal]
The packing or canning business in Maine is getting to be one of great importance, furnishing business for many men and women, and bringing a large sum of money into the State annually. It will readily be seen that a large amount of labor necessarily enters into the production of canned goods. In the canning of corn there is, first, the raising by the farmers, the drawing to the factory, followed by the husking and the other operations in canning. Then there is the making of cans, boxes for packing, etc., besides the erection of the buildings occupied. In the canning of fish, lobsters and clams, there is the catching to be added to the packing, and the transportation connected with the business is very large, making business for the steamboat lines and railroads in shipping supplies to the scenes of operation and the products to market.
In preparing this article, the original intention was to get facts and figures from all parties in the State in this line of business. In some cases the inquiries were promptly and definitely answered, but in a majority of cases were without success, so that the account must necessarily be incomplete.
THE LEADING INTERESTS.
The Portland Packing Company, a corporation of live businessmen of Portland, is doing the largest business of any concern now in the State. In addition to its Maine business, the company has ten factories in Nova Scotia and one in Newfoundland. The capital invested is $350,000. In this State the company has one factory in Portland, where 100 men are employed five months of the year packing meats; it has corn canning establishments at Cumberland Mills, Stroudwater, Gorham, Sebago Lake, Naples and Fryeburg, and are erecting others at Wells and Winthrop, each of which gives employment to from 300 to 375 persons, including farmers, during the packing season — six weeks in each year — and 55 men seven months in each year making cans for these factories and for the lobster and other fish canning establishments at Prospect Harbor, where 135 men are employed three months of the year; Hammond’s Cove, where 75 men work three months, and at Burnt Cove, where 75 men work five months of the year. Thus it will be seen that this company gives employment to 235 men five months, 210 men three months, 55 men seven months, and 2,650 men six weeks in each year in the State; also 1,625 men three months and 36 men four months in each year at various places in Nova Scotia and Newfoundland. The value of the company’s product for 1881 was $500,000.
Burnham & Morrill, of Portland have $250,000 invested in the packing business. They have factories at Portland, Scarborough, Minot, East Baldwin, South Paris, Denmark and Jonesport in Maine, and at Caribou, Brule, Crow Harbor, Port Clyde and Harrigan Cove in Nova Scotia. The articles canned are corn, succotash, beans, lobsters, clams, mackerel, and all kinds of meats, poultry and vegetables. The company contemplates the erection of corn factories in Maine and lobster factories in Nova Scotia next year.
The Milbridge Packing Company, has factories at Milbridge and Eastport. The capitol invested at the former place is $45,000, the number of hands employed 250, and the value of the product for the year 1881, $84,000. The products of this factory are American sardines in oil, mariner sardines, mustard sardines, mackerel and brook trout. This company intends to build another factory at Milbridge this season, of about the same capacity.
- & E. A. Wyman, of Milbridge, have a factory at which they give employment to 40 hands. They have $20,000 invested and their product for 1881, including packing; was $45,000. Lobsters, mackerel and clams are the articles put up.
Underwood & Company, of Jonesport, employ 100 hands; have $10,000 invested, and their product for the year 1881 was valued at $50,000. The articles packed are lobsters, berries, clams, mackerel and sardines.
- W. Soule, of Readfield, started a small business at that place as an experiment last year. He employed 30 hands, invested $3,000, and the value of the first year’s product was $3500. The result was so satisfactory that Mr. Soule will extend his business the coming season. The past year he canned corn only. The coming season he proposes to can corn, apples, pumpkins, squash, etc., and erect an apple evaporating establishment.
SARDINE FACTORIES
There are eighteen sardine factories at Eastport, four at Lubec, one at Robbinston, three at Jonesport, one at Milbridge and one at Lamoine. This business had its origin but five years ago in a small shop in Eastport; now the business gives employment in the factories alone to 1200 men, women and children in that one town, and in other towns in the same ratio. The principal companies and parties engaged in the business are: The American Sardine Company of New York, R. C. Green & Company, T. L. Holmes, Warren Brown, McLean & Abrams, Young & Simpson, Wolff & Ressing, J. S, Buck, C. H. Dyer, P. M. Kane, Hiram Blanchard, and E. F. Holmes, of Eastport; New England Packing Company, Dodge & Lawrence, Brown & Brawn, and H. Comstock & Company of Lubec; Hart & Balcom, of Robbinston; Wolff & Ressing, of Milbridge. The capital invested, hands employed and value of the product of this branch of the packing business cannot be stated even approximately. For some reason the proprietors are generally disinclined to give information in regard to the business transacted at Eastport, but it is quite extensive and supposed to be profitable. The larger concerns ship and market their own product, but the smaller have for the past two years sold their factories to Messrs. Wolf & Ressing, who ship their goods to New York and Boston.
The Eastport Sentinel estimates the value of the product of factories in that vicinity the past season at $1,000,000 the quantity being double, but the price was not much above one-half that of the previous years.
OTHER COMPANIES
The Castine Packing Company is doing a large business, principally canning lobsters in their season, but also using meats and vegetables.
These are but a part of the canning establishments along the coast. Others could be mentioned, but failing to get definite information in regard to capacity, etc., they are omitted. The packing of fish is roughly estimated at 1,500,000 cans of lobster, 750,000 cans of mackerel and 250,000 cans of clams annually.
- Winston Jones has been a conspicuous part in the corn canning business in the State and the failure of his company in January gave the business a “black eye” for a time. The company had fifteen corn and five lobster factories in the State and fourteen lobster and salmon factories in the Dominion. The assets of this company two years ago, when the corporation was organized, was $599,000. Eight new factories were built during the year 1881 at a cost of $55,000. The causes of the failure were given as a lack of capital, the erection of the new factories and the manufacturing of cans worth $20,000 more than were required for the short crop of corn last year. The indebtedness of the company was largely in New York, Boston and Portland, but the worst feature of the failure is the indebtedness to farmers all over the State where factories are located. The amounts of each individual farmer is not large, but the tendency will be to discredit the business and cause farmers to turn their attention to other crops.
There are fifty-five corn-canning establishments in the State; the product of which for 1881 is estimated to be about 11,500,000 cans, valued at not far from $1,000,000.
THE FUTURE OF THE BUSINESS
The question naturally arises as to the probabilities of this industry in the future. The Jones factories will very likely be operated by somebody, even if the old company does not get on its feet again. The Portland Packing Company is building at Winthrop, Burnham & Morrill anticipate erecting other factories, and as the sales the past year have been favorable, there may be other parties now engaged in the business who will feel like extending their operations. If the season should be favorable, it is reasonably safe to say that the product will exceed that of ast year, unless the Jones suspension shall prove to have a demoralizing effect upon those farmers who have been engaged in raising corn. It has been somewhat difficult to get sufficient corn raised for the factories in operation. Last year, Jones & Company could have handled considerably more than they did get, or were able to get, and this was one cause of their embarrassment. The crop pays farmers but about $30 to the acre, when the yield is good. There are advantages arising from the value of the fodder that help out, and if properly packed in silos it is very valuable for stock. Many farmers are experimenting in this mater. The ultimate success of this important industry depends entirely upon the problem whether packers can afford to pay enough for the corn to enable farmers to engage in raising it extensively. If the crop can be made to pay as well or a little better, all things considered, than other crops, the number of factories could easily be doubled so far as their being sustained by farmers is concerned, but if the value of the crop per acre is even a trifle below that of other crops, farmers will not long continue to raise corn for canning. The failure of the sugar beet industry in Maine demonstrates this.
There is, however, little reason to doubt but the canning business is being established on a firm basis in the State, and will be, for many years to come, a growing industry.
24 March
Page 186.
EASTERN INDUSTRIES
The Sentinel says there have been shipped the past season from Eastport and vicinity 29,650,600 frozen herring, and that the amount of money paid, in cash, to the fishermen, has not been far from $120,000. To get these fish to the western markets required 145 cargoes by sailing vessel and 9,830 barrels by steamer.
Page 187.
Messrs. Potter & Wrightinton’s canning factory at Green’s Landing, Deer Isle, has commenced work, putting up clams and clam chowders. Mr. George Tolman has either bought or leased the lobster canning establishment at Burnt Cove, and will commence operations April 15. The other factories were to start up the present week. Messrs. Charles A. Dyer & Company, of Portland, have leased the premises formerly occupied by the Portland Packing Company, at Oceanville, and are arranging to do a large business the coming season in canning lobsters, mackerel and clams.
31 March
Page 204.
It is understood that Mr. Noah Mayo, one of Boston’s largest packers of fish, who has extensive wharf facilities in East Boston, had taken a lease Widgery’s wharf in Portland, Maine, as an auxiliary to his fishing and packing business. He has a number of eastern vessels engaged for the coming season, and proposes to go into mackerel more extensively than ever. He expects to do a large trade in Portland when the fleet works down in that direction. It is said that this move of Mr. Mayo’s has stirred up a little excitement among fish packers in Portland, who imagine that it will interfere somewhat with their operations.
* * * * *
Deer Isle is the second town in population in Hancock county. It is twelve miles long, and from five to seven wide. It is a port of entry under Castine. There are about one hundred and fifty vessels large and small owned here, and engaged in coasting and fishing. The male population are mostly sailors and fisherman; there are four canning factories, two at Green’s Landing, one each at Burnt Cove and Oceanville. There is a silver mine at Dunham’s Point, which is being worked with fair prospects at present. At Green’s Landing there are two ice companies who have filled their houses after a hard struggle with the snow.
7 April
Page 221.
NUGGETS
Patents issued to Maine inventors under date of March 28, 1882, reported for us by William Franklin Seavey, Solicitor of Patents, Bangor: Trademarks: Canned corn, J. P. Baxter, Portland, the word “Yarmouth”; Canned provisions, Portland Packing Company, Portland, the figure of a star. Whole number of patents issued for the week, 357.
14 April
Page 236.
Bristol is going to utilize her menhaden factories by turning them into canning factories. Messrs. Wolf & Ressing have enlarged and fitted up the factory at Mexico Cove, near Round Pond, and will employ nearly 200 hands when in full operation. A fishing steamer is being fitted out for them in Portland for the mackerel fishing. John Bourns talks of changing his factory at Pemaquid for the same business.
28 April
Page 267.
Messrs. Wolff & Ressing are making large additions to their sardine factory at Milbridge. The main building will be over 260 feet long; another patent oven and hydraulic press will be added. Extensive preparations are being made for canning mackerel the coming season.
5 May
Page 283-284.
OUR FISHERIES
The Census Bureau has just issued a bulletin containing a summary of the statistics of the sea fisheries of Maine, prepared by R. Edward Earll, special agent of the Fish Commission. In his letter transmitting the statistics to Professor Goode, special agent in charge of the fishery investigation, Mr. Earll says: From an examination of the tables, it is found that, if the oyster industry be neglected, Maine ranks second only to Massachusetts in the extent and value of her sea fisheries. The following figures show the extent of the fishing interests of the State, in so far as they relate to the sea fisheries: Persons employed, 11,071; vessels employed, 606; tonnage of same, 1,763,265; fishing boats 590; capital dependent on the fishery industries, $3,375,994; pounds of sea products as they come from the water, 202,048,449; value of sea products as they come from the water, $1,790,849; pounds of sea products after being prepared for the market, 116,122,048; enhancement of value in process of preparation, $1,823,329; value of sea products in marketable condition, $3,614,178.
A similar statement for the river fisheries, as shown by Mr. Atkins, would be: Persons employed, 1591; capital dependent, $78,308; pounds of fish as they come from the water, 4,730,244; pounds of fish in marketable condition, 3,749,180; value of river products as sold, 125,046. By combining the tables of sea and river fisheries we have the following totals for the fishery interests of the State: Persons employed, 12,662; capital invested, $3,454,302; pounds of fishery products as they come from the water, 206,778,693; pounds of fishery products in marketable condition, 119,916,228; value of fishery products in marketable condition, $3,739,224. The following arrangement represents the sea fisheries according to their value: Herring fishery (including sardines), $1,043,722; mackerel, $659,304; cod, $656,753; lobster, $412,076; hake, $278,336; haddock, $225,393.
The 12,662 persons are all that can be considered as actually engaged in the fisheries or in preparation of fishery products, and hence are the only ones included in the tables, but, in addition, a large number are engaged in transporting the products to the larger markets, in building and repairing fishing vessels, making and repairing sails, manufacturing boxes, barrels and cans for packing the catch. This class should be considered if we are to have a correct impression of the fishing interests of the State. A rough estimate would place the number of people employed in this way at 3,500, making a total of over 15,000 directly and indirectly engaged in the work. Assuming that 9,000 of these have families averaging 4 persons (a wife and three children) depending on them, and that three thousand of the remainder are persons largely dependent upon their own resources, we have a total of 48,000 people, equal to about 7½ percent of the total population of the State, deriving a considerable portion of their support from the fishery industries.
It should not be forgotten, however, that many of the fishermen mentioned above are not wholly dependent upon the fisheries for a livelihood. Some of them have small farms, from which they derive a considerable income while others “ship” on the coasting vessels or find employment as mechanics or laborers on shore during those months when the fisheries cannot be advantageously prosecuted. This is especially true of the river fishermen, who, as a rule, fish only for a few weeks or months during the height of the season, after which they return to their farms or their shops.
12 May
Page 297.
EASTERN INDUSTRIES
Some sixty persons are now employed at the lobster-canning factory at Round Pond, Bristol.
* * * * *
Messrs. Lawrence & Dodge are running their sardine factory at Lubec on full time, giving employment to some 200 hands. The other factories were expected to start up the present week.
19 May
Page 314.
The sardine factory at Milbridge has commenced the seasons work. When running on full time it furnishes employment to 300 men and women and takes care of the fish from some 25 weirs.
* * * * *
A private letter from Oceanville, Deer Isle, to the Boston Fish Bureau, says that the lobster canning business is very dull there wholly for the want of lobsters to can. The four canning establishments at that place hardly get lobsters enough for one and, unless a change takes place for the better, a year or two more will drive them all out of the business. Very high prices have to be paid for all the lobsters obtained. The present law in this State, which attempts to prevent the taking of lobsters below a certain size, does not appear to have any good effects, since it is almost utterly disregarded, and those interested in the lobster packing business are loud in their demands for the more stringent legislation. The total catch of lobsters in the State for the census year of 1880, as reported to the United States Fish Commission was 14,234,188 pounds, of which 9,474,280 pounds were canned, leaving 4,739,908 pounds to be marketed in the old form. The total value of the lobster fishery for that year was $412,676. This sum probably only covers the price paid the fishermen, as it amounts to but a trifle under 3 cents per pound.
26 May
Page 329.
EASTERN INDUSTRIES
It is claimed that the small herring taken in Passamaquoddy Bay are identically the same as the small fish caught on the coast of the island of Sardinia and so called “sardines,” and that the oils used in packing the Eastport sardines are precisely the same as those used by French packers.
* * * * *
Business is said to be unusually lively about Milbridge this spring. New buildings are going up and many improvements are being made. Shipbuilding is also being quite extensively carried on there. Two schooners have recently been launched, and a small steamer is now ready for launching. The large sardine factory is running full blast.
2 June
Page 347.
EASTERN INDUSTRIES
The two lobster factories at Prospect Harbor and the South Shore in Gouldsboro, are putting up from 15,000 to 22,000 cans per week.
* * * * *
The Cape Elizabeth Canning Company has reorganized and taken into the company Mr. James S. Libby, of Rockland, and built a large building, of which the former acts the part of an ell. The company are doing business under the name of the Red Brook Packing Company, and is composed of the following of the following named gentlemen: Frank P. Cummings, James S. Libby, Randall A. Skillin and Hiram McKenney. It is their purpose this year to pack beef and tomatoes in connection with corn, thus running for the entire season.
16 June
Page 380.
New Incorporations
Winslow Packing Company – Portland, May 9 – Capital $500,000 – Purposes, to can or otherwise preserve meat, fish, game, corn, etc. and deal in the same at wholesale or retail, and all business incident thereto – President, Charles P. Mattocks, Portland; Treasurer, Frederick Jones, Deering.
23 June
Page 394.
EASTERN INDUSTRIES
Messrs. Pike & Gillise are running their sardine factory at Lubec day and night. Herring are said to be abundant at low prices.
* * * * *
Forty thousand cans of lobsters were put up last month at the Boothbay canning factory. Whole amount of cash paid out, $2,500 for lobsters and $500 for labor. The canned goods are shipped every week to Portland. Eighteen men and ten girls are employed in the factory now. The lobster season is nearly over, and the mackerel season will commence in a short time, when more help will be required.
Page 395.
A FEW WASHINGTON COUNTY INDUSTRIES
MILBRIDGE
The village of Milbridge is located on a fine harbor at the mouth of the Narraguagus, is well situated for drawing much future wealth from both the land and sea, and bids fair to become a town of much business importance. Two vessels and two small steamboats have been launched at Milbridge this season and four others are now on the stocks, one of which is a very fine one of 650 tons, being built on contract for New Jersey parties, by Captain J. W. Sawyer. About 30 first-class shipmasters engaged in the foreign trade have elegant homes in Milbridge and quite a number of buildings of all kinds are now being erected.
MILBRIDGE PACKING COMPANY
The immense fish canning establishment of this company was erected in the season of 1881, and has been enlarged the present year to nearly double its former capacity, making it the largest and among the best equipped in all its details of any on the coast.
The main building is 240 feet in length, and supplied with steam boilers, engine, elevators, Ranney’s patent reel ovens, large power presses for pressing the rejected fish and refuse, and is withal an interesting concern to look over. Fully equipped for business, the establishment cost about $15,000 and will consume about $21,000 worth of tin the present season. The packing continues from May 1 to November 1, but the making of cans continues the entire year. Four different methods are employed in packing. First, in oil; second oil with spice and vinegar; third, mustard sauce; fourth vinegar and spice; all under their respective trade marks. Fourteen thousand cases of sardines and 3,045 cases of mackerel were put up last season, for which $6,000 was paid out to those who supplied the fish. From 200 to 300 hands are employed during the season.
The same concern operate a factory at Round Pond (Bristol) and are preparing to put up 15,000 cases of mackerel the present season under the firm name of A. Ireland, Peck & Company. There is a large and increasing demand for canned mackerel and that department of fish packing is now assuming large proportions on our coast.
Two lobster factories are in operation in Milbridge, owned by J. & E. A. Wyman and J. W. Jones, and another in Addison owned by J. & E. A. Wyman. The lobster shells from these factories are used as fertilizers for hay fields and other crops, to an immense advantage to farm production.
30 June
Page 410.
A correspondent of the Portland Transcript gives some of the very evident reasons for the rapid diminution and threatening extinction of lobsters on the coast of Maine. During the past winter and spring, he says, as many as 500 barrels of live lobsters have been shipped at one time from Rockland to Boston. As there are some seventy lobsters (140 pounds) to the barrel, this would be a total of 35,000 lobsters in number, or 70,000 pounds in weight. With the present facilities for collecting the small lots from the many steamboat landings all the way from Rockland to Machias, the fishermen have a sure sale twice a week for all the lobsters they may catch. In many cases, he is informed, the dealers do not disturb the lobsters, but cook them alive in the barrels as they receive them, by lowering the barrels into a steam tank by means of hoisting gear arranged for the purpose. After thus cooking they are re-shipped, in the same barrels, to A, B, and C, at a distance, or they are sold to citizens of Boston. Large quantities are also unpacked, sorted, re-packed and sent to New York and Chicago markets. The above shipment gives some idea of the immense traffic in lobsters in this form, as it does not include Camden, Belfast, Castine and many shipping points east of Rockland, and also all points west to the Massachusetts line. Eastport probably furnishes as many as are shipped fromRockland. Many spawn lobsters are caught and sold in this enormous trade. One fisherman has stated that he counted 300 spawn lobsters in his fall catch, and then gave up keeping an account. More small lobsters are sold and shipped alive than are used at the canneries, where a lobster measuring less than 10½ inches in length is seldom received. There have been great losses, also, by confining lobsters alive, awaiting shipment, as the following case well illustrates: At Vinalhaven 150,000 live lobsters were confined in a saltwater pond, by using wire netting to prevent them escaping from its narrow inlet, and of this number nearly one-half, or about 75,000, died or were eaten by each other. The remedy proposed by this correspondent is this: That the months which constitute the present close time for the packing establishments should also be a close time for the taking of lobsters for any purpose, thus insuring an inexhaustible supply for all parties.
(Continued in the next issue)
