Los Angeles herald., 1893-01-07
WEALTH UNDER WATER.
SANTA MONICA BAY AND HER
PIsCATORIAL PRODUCTS.
why Cannot Some Movem ent Be Made
Towards Establishing Canneries at
San Pedro, Ba1lona, Redondo
and Santa Monica?

seaboard extend from the Georges
banks, off the coast of Newfoundland, to
the capes of Virginia, but the fishing
season begins in April and ceases in
September, from which time around to
the next spring the fishermen devote
their time to cod, halibut and haddock.
The loss of life on the banks OF New
foundland, every year, is something
frightful; and yet the fsherman's boy
stands on the hillside beside his wild
owed mother and longs for the day to
come when he can 60 out as sailor in a
fishing vessel and tempt the same fate
which overlook his father. The hardy
New Englanders make good settlers in
any new land, because they are not only
brave and Industrious, but thrifty and
economical as well. In our anxiety to
settle up this country we have paid too
much attention to the people in Kansas,
Nebraska and Minnesota, and have
overlooked the sturdy men Of Noank,
Marblehead and Gloucester.
Our mackerel fisheries will not CON-
pare with those of the Atlantic for size
or fish, but there is no end to the num-
bers of them, and that is the greater de-
sideratum after all. In the eastern
fisheries the largest msckerel are sorted
out and put up in kits with brine,
marked No. l. Then comes second
size, also put in kits and marked No. 2.
The third size is put up in small kegs,
with a mixture of vinegar, onions, bay
leaves. salt and peppercorns, while
fourth is canned in tin cans holding two
pounds each and seasoned with tomato
sauce. Every grocery store in Los An
geles has the kits and the cans, but
there are few spiced ones to be had. In
the great fishing towns of France, such
as Concarneau, Nice and Trouville,
there are canneries where mackerel are
canned in oil just like sardines; ; and the
man who has once eaten mackerel put
up in this way, will never care to eat
sardines again,
At present the preserving of mackerel
in oil here is not to be thought of, be-
cause the olive industry is too new and
the price of oil much too high. Ellwood
Cooper of Santa Barbara and Frank
Kimball of National City are selling
their oil at SIS per case for quarts, and
so much purer is their oil than the i'm
ported article that all the restaurants
! are willing to pay the difference in price
for the sake of getting an oil that does
not grow rancid. But other olive Or
chards are coming in daily to swell the
product, and prices must decline as
products increase. Whenever oil gets
down to about 81 30 per gallon, then it
will pay to use it for canning mackerel
and sardines; and then we may expect
to see canneries established at dozen
points between here and San Francisco.
The very same capital which i5 en-
ployed in the salmon canneries of Alaska
and Puget sound is ready to go into this
business whenever olive oil gets down
to such figure that they can see their
way clear to use it. Five years hence
that will not be such a difficult matter,
for trees that now yield quart of oil
will then be yielding two gallons; and
while the price is sure to be less than
now, the increase in the yield will more
than make up the difference.
One dozen smart and active New Eng
land fishermen on Santa Monica bay
would soon make q good showing for
themselves and their families. They
would erect tidy little cottages, sur
rounded by little gardens, and teach our
people how much could be achieved
with very little money. They would
not lose boat once in five years, and
yet they would have the whole range of
the great coast, from Port Hanford to
San Diego, in which to conduct their
operations. Ice is plenty, and just as
cheap as in New York or Boston. They
could ship their product to Fresno,
Tulare, Visalia, Bakersfield, Pomona,
Riverside and dozen other inland
towne, and never lose the sale of dol
lars worth of fish in the course of a
year. The presence of such an element
in our midst would be q blessing. In
the next 80 years they would build up
Gordon of prosperous towns between San
Diego and San Francisco; and would
add vast deal of capital to the material
wealth of the country.