News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1882-08-31

thirty-two large boiling watts, each with
a capacity for 20, 900 fish, and which oc-
cupy nearly the whole interior of the
building, a tramway carried on a staging
from the docks over these watts, tram
cars, hydraulic presses for pressing out
oil, iron tanks for storing it, long sheds
for storing the "scrap" or residuum left
after extracting the oil, and the drying
yard, board platform two acres in ex-
tent, bare to the sun, on which the
scrap is dried. The men employed are
Virginia negroes, and spend the day
sleeping, singing, pitching quoits, and
in other forms of amusement. At sun
set, however, when the steamers gener-
ally arrive with the days catch, the
scene changes to one of intense activity.
Smoke pours from the chimney stacks,
the engine snorts and clanks, cars run
down the tramways, and are filed from
the steamers hold by men with fork
and shovel; then mount into the dark
interior of the factory and drop their
loads into the boiling watts. Steam is
let into these until the fish are cooked
sufficiently for the bones to drop out /;
then the mass is turned into the presses,
pressure is applied, and the oil as it
flows out is conducted by pipes to the
storage tanks ranged without the build
ing. This comprises the entire process
of turning the menhaden into oil. 1t is
continued through tine night, and when
morning comes nothing remains of the
$4,000 menhaden that formed the
steamers cargo but a tank of dark
eolored oil, and a great heap of scrap
in corner of the drying yard. This
scrap is dried in the sun for day, then
heaped up and allowed to sweat the
same length of time, then again thor
oughly dried and stored in the ware
houses. In this state it appears as
yellow, almost inodorous substance,
very rich in amonia and the phosphates,
and is sold to manufacturers OF fertiliz-
ers, who mix it with other ingredients
principally Charleston rock-and DIS
pose of it to farmers.
From Mr.. Tuthill, who has made OF
the menhaden industry an intelligent
study, learned that the business was
largely overdone, and that some of the
weaker firms must shortly go to the
wall. He enumerated no less than fif-
teen factories on the Long Island coast
two at Cedar Island, one at Orient,
two at Shelter Island, six at Promised
Land, one at Napeague Harbor, and
three at Barren Island, on the Atlantic
engaged in the taking of menhaden.
There are three on the Connecticut
shore, two on the jersey coast, and sew
eral in Maine and Virginia, but the lat
ter are said to be practically out of
business. Each factory, if properly
equipped, has two steamers, each fur
nished with large seine, boats, and
complement of thirteen men. A few
cling to the old-iashioned "sailing
gangs" a yacht fitted with boats, seine,
etc., and having one or two smaller
crsft to carry her catch to the factory,
but these have been nearly all super
seeded. In the spring the steamers fish
in the ocean exclusively, rounding
Montaux and patrolling the shore west
ward and southwark as far as Barnegat,
on the Jersey coast. In the summer
and fall they find their prey in the
Sound and its bays. The life of the
menhaden fisher is one of hardship and
excitement. Steaming alongshore al
most within grasp of the surf, he sights
his prey, and lowers boats and seine for
their capture. They are nearly landed.
perhaps, when a shark is discovered in
the net, and, tearing its meshes right and
left.- allows the whole catch to escape.
Or the net is befouled on rocks at the
bottom, and lis disentangled only by
long and tiresome efforts. Anchors,
again, left by vessels which were obliged
to cut and run before some sudden gale,
are fruitful cause of disaster to the
nets. The Jersey coast is greatly
dreaded for this reason by the fisher
men. 1t is also within the range of pos
sibility that a sudden blow will lay his
steamer on the bar, and himself stark
and stiff on the sands. or the nature
and the habits of the menhaden Mr..
Tuthil spoke from careful study.
A PULLING FISH.
sit is" he said, "the least known and
most puzzling fish in our water. Men
in my business would be willing to pay
the expense of commission of experts
70 Ind 90 haI
best methods of guarding against its
extinction. The fish first appears on
our coast about the first of May, COM
ing from the south, and is then very
thin, yielding barely three quarts of oil
to the thousand. In July and August
we find him in the Sound. He has
grown much fatter then and yields
eleven gallons to the thousand and
there is story of thousand tried at a
Maine establishment that yielded TWEEN
ty-two gallons. am not of the opinion
that the menhaden have seriously de-
creased in number, but they have be-
come more timid and wary. More have
been reported this year and fewer
OouShb bildA ever DSlOIS. IISCOAtiy O4O
OF my captains, coming in, saw off Mon
tauk school containing ten or twelve
millions. He went out next morning,
and not fin of them was to be seen.
Not long since another captain fell in
with an immense body off Fire Island,
so dense that he did not dare attack it
for fear of losing his nets. He sailed
back and forth through it to break it
up, then set, and caught 140, 900 ct a
haul. A few hours later another steamer
sailed over the spot and saw none.
where they went, and why, is mystery.
Some explanation of it is to be found,
perhaps, In the great number of natural
enemies they encounter. Besides man,
in-back whales, sharks, porpoises and
bluefish pursue them relentiessly."
Referring to the feeling of the "long-
shore" farmers and fishermen against
the steamers, Mr.. Tuthiil said: "It is
prejudice and nothing more. In the
first place, there is no evidence that the
menhaden came into the bays to spawn.
We find spawn at all seasons, and am
of opinion that the spawning-grounds
are in the ocean rather than in the
bays. Again, our steamers take the
fish, it is true, but they do not destroy
its value as fertilizer, but rather in
| crease IT. The old method of aDDIyino