Iuka reporter. (Iuka, Miss.) 1888-1894, 1890-04-10
ON THE PENoBscor.
smelts Caught by the Ton-sheep
and Cattle Eat Fish.

and Cattle Eat Fish.
81 don't suppose you'd believe there
was part of this glorious country OF
ours where the sheep and cattle eat tom
Gods, would your" asked the genial Capt.
Enoch Spicer, an old-time skipper of the
coast line service. 'Of course YOU
wouldn't, but it's true, all the same, and
you can see it done any winter by Just
taking run up in the Penobscot country,
State of Maine.
"Where do the best smelts that ever
made frying pan smell good come from
From the Penobscot River. Between
November and March New York eats a
good many hundred tons of Penobscot
smelts. Penobscot smelts will run about
1875 pounds to the bushel, and every
time u smelt fisherman in that river
hauls up his net and don't find bushel
of smelts in it that haul was not as great
a success as he counted on. can't be-
gin to tell you how many nets there are
In the river grabbing for smelts every
day, but there are enough, and although
each net is only lifted twice in twenty
four hours, once at flood and once at ebb
tide, by the time they have been hauled up
those two times daily for 100 days, which
won't be any too long season, you may
Inquire 1T up easy enough that each net
Will have relieved the river of not less
than 20, 900 pounds of smells.
Fifty nets may be set down as a low
estimate of the number that are set daily
every season in the Penobscot River, and
their catch will not aggregate a pound
less than 600 tons of these sweet and ten
der little fish. And these nets I'm speak
ing OF are simply the ones they call trap
nets, and they are set only in the river
where the tide runs. Above tide the
river freezes, and small army of smelt
fishermen gather there and fish through
the ice with a dip net fastened to long
pole. 1t is hardly necessary to say that
those fishermen haven't been very busy
this season, but they get their work in
Tor good many bushels of smelts when
the river is frozen.
Gas to those tom Gods. With every
net of smelts that the fisherman hauls in
ne finds enough tom Gods to supply him
with stock for little trade in the aeri-
cultural line. The farm lands along the
Penobscot are not the poorest in the
world, but they will stand good deal of
tempering with fertilizers. The tom cod
is not the equal of the salmon in CASTRO
nomlc qualities, but it can knock the
salmon endwise as promoter of agricul-
eural interests. Spread literally over the
reluctant sod, or its juices mingled gen
cnsly, by means of sub-soil plough.
with the discouraged soil, the tom cod
VIII restore willingness to the meadow
grass and urge the corn to new endeavor.
The Penobscot farmers found that out
years ago, so every winter they come in
force to the Penobscot's banks and dicker
with the smelt fishermen for their tom
Gods, and cart them away, frozen stiff as
ciothespins, for the good of the land. And
THESE farmers discovered another thine
one winter, years age. That winter thew
were running pretty close to the wind on
fodder for their sheep and cattle. In
TACT, long before spring had thought of
coming, good many of the farmers j
hadn't enough hay or grain left over to
NOV floors or to make it worth while for
rat to sklrmish around the granaries
any longer. 1t was critical period in
the agricultural history of the valley, and
things looked black. One day farmer
was returning from the river with load
OF frozen tom Gods. He passed on the
road a COW on which gaunt hunger had set
Its unmistakable seal. AS he passed. a
couple OF tom Gods were jolted off his
sled. The COW saw them. made for
them, and ate them with relish. That
gave the farmer an idea, and ALTHOUGH
the COW chased him for three miles. and
ne had to keep shoveling out tom Gods to
her to prevent her jumping in the sled
after them, he did not let the idea escape
him. He had few bushels of tom Gods
lett when he reached home, and he
divided them up among his sheep. his
COWS, and his horses. The horses didn't
take kindly to them, and that was thought
TO De funny, for hungry horse will eat
up his manager and seem to relish it. Rut
the COWS and the sheep ate the tom Gods
with gusto, and that night they were
quiet for the first time in week, The
news spread, and other farmers tried the
tom Gods as fodder. 1t vas a success
The sheep and cattle not only relished
the frozen fish, but got sleek and fat on
them. When the smelt fishermen heard
how important an economic factor their
tom Gods had become in the Penobscot
valley they promptly de-. bled the pricc
70 the farmers, but the farmers stood the
,alse and the valley was saved. "-TNew