Connecticut western news., 1883-04-18
OUR CANNED SALMON.
WHERE IT COMES FROM.
Salmon Fishing on the Columbia and How
 it is Carried On.

n IS carried On.
 Salmon fishing on the Columbia river begins about April 20. It seldom begins before that time, because the run of fish is very light, and there being more float ing snags and driftwood in the river than at any other time the nets are easily destroyed. The season lasts four months. A boat, net and signal light cost from $4O0 to $6OO. There are thirty six canning firms on the Columbia River, nearly all of them being at Astoria. There is general disposition to centre the salmon canning business at that ancient little town, as it seems to be the cheapest place of operators; for if the fisheries were further up, the Columbia tugboats would have to be employed to bring back the fishing boats. Yet the lower bay at the mouth of the Columbia is very stormy during the fishing season, during which there is often loss of life and great deal of danger and hardship. This is one reason the Columbia salmon cost more than the Sacramento salmon. Fishermen who have their own boats and nets are paid sixty cents salmon, weighing eight pounds. Those whose boats are furnished by the company are paid forty-fve cents salmon. One of the firms has raised the price to ninety cents fish, but the others refuse to see the elevation.
 Salmon are packed in one-pound cans and forty-eight cans make a case, the l average price of case being $5 or $5 20. The product of the thirty six canneries | on the Columbia River last year was 535, ,O00 cases, worth $2, 782, ,0OO. It is | estimated that the capital invested in these thirty-six canneries is about fishing boats cost $500 or $500 each, and that some of the fishing firms have 100 boats and that total of about 1000 men are employed, the cost can readily be understood. About one-third of the salmon product is shipped to San Francisco for reshipment to Australia, the Eastern States and islands ill the Pacific Ocean. The remainder is shipped direct from Astoria to Liverpool or London. One vessel recently left with 10000 cases, worth over $350, ,000, the most valuable cargo of salmon ever shipped from the Pacific coast.
 The continued run of salmon in the Columbia is remarkable, considering the great destruction of fish by traps and the merciless iron wheels that impale them like the Spanish garrote. There is a sentiment ill favor of abolishing this wholesale destruction of fish, and it is very likely that law will be passed pro- hibiting it. The law against fishing be- tween Saturday night and Monday morn ing is not rigidly enforced. The law was passed in order to allow the fish to ascend to their spawning grounds. But in this wholesale and untilnely destruc- tion the people are destroying the very source of their revenue. It is proposed
 by the cannery proprietors to establish
 a hatchery. Some "public-spirited'
 people, think that the State should es-
 tablish hatchery for the benefit of the
 cannery establishments. Yet the canner-
 ies have year after year, packed from
 400, 900 to 535, 900 cases, depending solely
 on the fish that escape to their natural
 spawning grounds. It can easily be esti-
 mated what future awaits this growing
 industry, when hatchery has been es-
 tablished able to turn out millions ot
 fish annually, and their wholesale de- struction stopped. Perhaps then 2, 1000, 900 cases might be packed which would
 be revenue of $1O, O,OoO, ,O0O, about one-
 fourth of which would be net.
 During the last fifteen years the rev enue derived from fishing ill the Colum-
 bia River was about 1925, ,OOO,O ,OOO. There were 860 900 cases of salmon packed on l the Pacific coast last year, the value of which was $4, ,3OO,OOO. This would leave 300, ,OOO cases for canneries outside of the , Columbia River. When salmon fishing , began here fifteen years ago the price , was about three times what 1t is now, ol
 $15 case.
 If the wholesale destruction of fish is l not stopped and hatcheries are not soo1 ) established, the supply will soon be like 7 the last run of shad and the price will ad 3 vance. But there is considerable salmon t fishing in Alaska, three canneries being @ in existence there, and recent reports re q fer to the establishment of another The ''scooping" wheels upon whicf l salmon are caught resemble the old e fashioned ''undershot" wheel. They ar' l. built upon embankments or projecting q rocks, so that the wheel will be in tho . water when the stream rises. Of course j., they are built ill the low-water season Q The wheels have plank paddles, so tha t the water running down stream sets tn q wheel in motion, and the salmon coming >. up stream are caught on the wheel an'
 literally broken. They fall into
 "chute" something like a wood-drive
 and slide down into boxes A whee g scoops up 5000 or 4,OOO salmon night 1T There is no law to prevent this whole h sale slaughter and destruction, but ther h is a loud cry for it.