Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1890-11-30
HERRING.
Some Idea of the Interests Involved in
the Fisheries of Scotland.
The Bounty Systpm as II was and as 1t s.
Under the Recent Laws-The Boats
and the Season-Ths Curer.

Under the Recent Iaws-The Boats
and the Season-Ihe Curer.
Special Correspondence of the Gazette.
LERwICK, SHETLAND, Oct. 6.-The
herring fisheries OF Scotland form such n
stupendous interest. IN capital invested q,
III the numb of men, women and boats
employed, aud product for home con-
sumption and export to the continent Sc
cured, that have been at pains to study
the subject for intelligent presentation to
signed such fishing on the coasts of Bril-
tain Is about 1880, although herrings are
mentioned IN the chronicles of Eveshum
III 700, the Normuns having probably
then acquired tine art OF sailing fish; and
it is more than proba BILE that the use of
salt was known in the time of William
the Conqurror, as Duhamel quotes one of
William : charters which stat, that in
the eleventh century vessels from Dieppe
called 'Grand Drogueurs' went 20 the
North to fish for behring's III July and
brought them home N barrels sailed.
The Dutch obtained privilege of Edward
l. to take herriugs at Yarmouth, Eng
lani; and in the reign Of the third Ed
ward an act was passed relative to sup
plying the British fleet with herrings.
During the middle ages, and later still,
British herring fishing, which was
always chiefly along the Scottish coasts,
was even encouraged through the means
of religious fast days.
their rise and development to the jeal-
ousy of the Dutch, who largely fire.
quented the east coast during the last
century and who still annually send @
large fleet of fishing ''busses' to the
Shetland islands. Their method of
CURING WITH SALT
is said to have originated IN 1856 by one
william Beuk les, native of Flanders.
This humble fisherman may be said 10
have laid the foundation of the Dutch
herring fisheries, which have always
proved one of their greatest sources of
national wealth. The saying is that
Amsterdam itself was 'built on herring
bones;' white Beukels' memory was so
honored by the Dutch that in 1886,
Charles V. of the Netherlands and his
sister, the queen OF Hungary, paid
memorable visit 10 his tomb. The Scotch
adopted the Dutch method of curing
herring. and these two people, with the
fishermen of our own New England
coast, are principal competitors for the
continental cured herring trade of Eu-
rope.
The board of British white herring
fisheries was established by parliament
in 1909, and is still in existence under
the present title of the fishery board for
Scotland. Many restrictive measures
have been enacted during the present
century, such as "close'' seasons, Tar
ring the use of circle trawl-nets, and
nets of certain size of mesh, but without
result; but since 1868 the Scottish herring
fisheries have been practically free from
legislative control, even Sunday fishing
i'll religious Scotland being largely prac-
ticed. The Scottish board has in its SER
vice general inspector, one assistant,
and thirty sub-inspectors or officials. All
of these are not only graduate fishermen,
but have also been fsh-Curers By occupa-
ton. For the purpose of easy control
and procuring statistics, the coast line of
Scotland is divided into Iwenty-six dis
tricts, the east coast having seventeen
and the west coast nine districts. Each
district is provided with at least one ott-
Ger, and some with two.
A bounty system for the encourage
men; of herring fishing prevailed with
curious results from 1856 to 1880. Fisher
men went 10 sea TO 'catch the bounty
rather than the fish - 1t was paid on
tonnage OF vessels instead of upon her
rings landed In 1859 this bounty was
fifty shllings per ton OF tonnage. Four
barrels were taken. The tonnage bounty
paid was upwards of fl59. This being
from 1909 10 1915 the gov.
ernment paid Two shillings per barrel of
cured behring's and, altogether, four
eight pence. If exported. Gov
eminent bounties ceased III 1880. Gov
eminent branding. after examination,
was, however. continued; aud. in 1859,
a branding fee of four pence par barrel
was fixed which still continues in force.
In q way
THE BOUNTY SYSTEM
is still continued as q concession to the
fishermen, but in totally different
form. The government paid its bounty
both to the vessel owner on tonnage and
the fish-curer on cured behring's. Under |
the bounty system as retained by the
trade, the bounty is now exclusively
paid by the curer to the fisherman be-
fore he puts net in the sea. This
- trade bounty reached its height in
1884. when, on the AberLlneshire coast,
it was $40 TO ESQ per boat, the fisher
men also receiving 81 per 'cra1' OF |
herring landed. This trade-bounty'
now greatly reduced, is paid to the crew,
or rather, to the owner of the boat, be- |
fore fishing begins, and forms q
mild sort of lottery. Thus, if the
BARGAIN ia 81 nor Gran and Fb0 bonpty
and the boat fish 100 Grams, the cost to
the curer Is thirty-two shillings per Gran. |
Ii 200 Grams are landed the price is re-
dueed to twenty-sIX shiliings per Gran. |
Again, all behring's over complement |
Of. say. 200 or $50 Grams, will be deliv-
cred under the FL rate, and those de-