The Milan exchange. (Milan, Gibson County, Tenn.) 1874-1978, 1879-05-01
MACKEREL.
How Caught and where An Incrca,Ing

flip in America with bis insatiate friend
the conservative Goldfish, to the great
delight of the Pilgrims and Puritans
in their exceeding time of need; kline
service their sons and daughters are moi
soon inclined to forget. OF all the fnny
tribes that roam or sport in the ocean
the msckerel is the most beautiful, eat,
able snd valuable. While fresh it il
found upon the table of the rich and
poor many months in the year; afford
ing always healthy and desirable
sometimes delicious, and often fol
months an exceedingly cheap kind OF
food. Fresh mackerel have been sold in
London markets as high as seven shil.
lings each, and as low as sixty for one
shilling.
There has been inspected in Massachu.
sets alone, during the ten years pre-
ceding and including 1874, two million
three hundred and sixteen thousand and
eighty>three barrels, an average of two
hundred and thirty-one thousand bar
rels annually. At an average price of
twelve dollars and a half per barrel,
which must be conceded a low estimate
for these year,, we have an annual pro-
duct of about three millions from the
salt mackerel department of Massachu-
sets. In 1850 Professor Storer esti-
mated that about eight thousand bar
rels of fresh msckerel were sold in the
Boston market. Since 1850, ewing to
increased facilities for transportation
and the general use of ice, this branch
has been augmented in Boston at least
ten fold. Immense quantities are CAR
ried direct to the New York market
during the spring and early summer,
which, and other places, it
would seem a safe calculation that at
least half as many mackerel are now
sold fresh as are salt packed. Estimat-
ing their value the same as the sailed
ish, and allowing only half million
for all the mackerel caught in Maine
md the other states, we have five mil
ion dollars annual income to the in
iustry of the state, on an outlay of
thirteen millions. This five million is
purely productive; every dollar comes
rom the ocean. Not even farming is so
ore-eminently and entirely productive
industry. The fisherman plows an I'M
axed furrow, that needs no replenishing
ear by year.
1t is almost incredible how fast mack
rel may be caught by trsined crew.
he mackerel sometimes go up so fast |
hat the whole side of the vessel shines
Ike silver. In July, 1912, q crew Of
leven men and boys "struck a SCHOOL,
biting mackerel on Georges bank. In
twenty-five minutes they caught thirty
trike- barrels Ga barrel go full that the
lsckerel jump out). Ten hours such
ahing would give six hundred strike
srrels, or about three hundred barrels,
hicb, at the present price of that quail
y, would stock seven thousand five
undred dollars. Among leading mack
rel fishermen, Skipper Richard Rich, of
ruro was celebrity in his day. For
any years he was 'fhigh line" in the
,untry. On account of sailing many
ears in the schooner Osceola, he became
ute widely known as "OsceoIa Dick :"
me thought that mackerel knew him
well and came to his hook. One
lndred and fifty wash-barrels was not
eat deck for Osceola Dick. He has
ken one hundred and ninety wash
lrrels in a single day, all saved in good
der, and without feeling very fishy.
In pursuit of food, mackerel roam the
can as the beast roams the forests; but
ey move north or south by laws as
Ked as the rule of the seasons. ThOreau
his Cape Cod" tells of WellHeet
rmer who kept his schooner anchored
sight of his house, and while his corn
ID potatoes were growing, and at other
d times, with his boys, he ran down to
irginia and other points along the
asst. Thoreau calls the schooner a
arketwsgOn, which this ocean farmer
owe amain. AS the farmer calls his
OK by scattering corn, and thus leads
EN- to fresh pastures and fields anew,
these sea-tsrmers call their focks into
e bays and on the banks of the coast,
d feed with food convenient for them.
other words, the thousand or fifteen
inbred sail of fishermen that used to
nge our shores, and by systematic
actice scatter a hundred thousand bar
Is annually of fat, fresh-ground food
the msckerel, called Throwing bait"
d educated the fish to visit, feed and
ten in handy pastures.
As we have taken so successfully to :,
ting ost meal, may we not take another
son of the hardy Scotch, and learn to
more fish ? Surely if eating oat- !,
al and herring have given them Drawn
d brain, they may be proud of both. 6
yden did not mean the Gaels when he G
d, Drawn without brains is theirs"
1860 there.were employed in the Irish =
ring fisheries $1,000 men and boys,
4 more than fourteen thousand vessels