The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1909-09-30

The herring brush weirs of the north
east coast are very substantially built
and some are of large capacity and con-
siderable value. The stout stakes or
posts are driven into the bottom at close
intervals, or, in case the bottom is rocky,
are attached to large stones, and this
framework is strengt hened by heavy
horizontal stringers. The portion below
low-water line is closely woven with
branches of trees running horizontally,
means of forked stick The upper
part of the weir is of loosely woven
brush extending vertically two or three
feet above high water. AS the average
tidal movement is twenty feet, and in
spring nearly thirty feet, the amount of
material required is considerable. Some
weirs are mere semicircular Enclosures,
while others are provided with leaders or
wings, or both.
The weirs are always fshed at low tide,
as then the herring are concentrated and
may be more readily secured. The fish
ermen enter the weirs in boats, set a
seine and haul it's ends together, and
then take out the fish with huge dip nets.
In some places the fish are left dry by
the receding tide, and may be gathered
by hand or with pitchforks. From 200
to 400 brush weirs are operated in waters
| adjacent to the international boundary
between Maine and New Brunswick.
They supply herring for bait, smoking,
sailing and canning, and often yield very
large profits to their owners. The unit
of measure in this fishery is the hogs
head, holding fifteen bushels, and many
hundreds of hogsheads sometimes sew
eral thousand may be taken in single
weir in the course of season.
Upward of $4,000 has been received
for the herring taken in one fortunately
located weir, and there is record of
weir on the Canadian side of Passama-
quoddy bay which was leased by Ameri-
cans at an annual rental of $1,000, with
bonus of So for each hogshead of fish
caught; yet, notwithstanding the SEEM
ingly exorbitant price, the lessees, before
the close of the first season, were able to
pay three years rental in advance, ow-
ing to the large catch and high prices of
small herring.
The prosperity, if not the very exist
ence, of the herring weir fishery on the
northeast coast depends on the presence
of large number of canneries at East
port, Lubec and other places on or near
the Maine border, where herring are con-
verted into ''sardines :" Weirs have also
been constructed along the central and
western districts of Maine in order to
supply raw material for canneries and
smokehouses, and large catches are often
made at points remote from the center
of the herring industry. 1t is recorded
that in October and November, 1908, a
brush weir in the Bagaduce river near
Castine took 10000, 900 small herring-a
quantity so large that no local market
could be found and the catch had to be
sent to places as far eastward as Lubec.
THE AMERICAN "sARDINE.
The most valuable branch of the Amer
lean herring industry is the canning of
small herring under the name of "sar
Dimes" The business began in 1875, pre-
coded by six or seven years of expert
mental work, and has continued up to the
present time. The factories are located
at suitable points along the entire Maine
coast, but are most numerous on or near
the eastern boundary. These factories
give employment to many thousand men,
women and children; utilize immense
quantities Of herring that would other
wise find little market, and produce
wholesome food that fer many years was
marketed largely under French labels,
but is now sold under its proper name
and on its own merits, with resulting
improvement in quality.
The most valuable behring's for can
ming are the young, from three to five
inches long, suitable for packing in
quarter" cans. The demand for these
has at times been so active that fabulous
prices--far beyond the real worth of the
fish-have been paid. AS much as $500
per hogshead was given one season, and
a price of $50 per hogshead has not in
frequently prevailed, but on the other
hand, the price has often fallen to 50
and has not averaged more than from
S. to So. Herring of larger size are put
up in oil, mustard and tomato sauce in
''half' and 'three-quarter" tins, but the
chief use made of the larger fish is for
smoking. The Maine coast is dotted with
herring smokehouses, some independent,
others in connection with canneries, and
several million boxes of delicious smoked
herring are there placed on the market
each season.
The New Englanders have not been
content with the supplies Of herring OBJ
talnable from home waters, but have for
many years engaged in herring fishery
and trade on the shores of the Canadian
maritime provinces and of Newfound
land. This business has been conducted
mostly in winter, when the fishing vessels
were otherwise idle, when the fish We're
schooling in the waters of the neighbor-
ing provinces, when there was scarcity
on our own shores, and when there was
good demand for herring for use as bait
in the line fisheries. For this purpose
our vessel fishermen resorted to various
regions and engaged in the business in
various ways, depending on local condi-
lions, sometimes catching the herring
themselves, sometimes hiring the provin-
Gals to fish for them, sometimes buying
outright the herring already caught and
awaiting purchaser. The principal To-
calities thus visited by our vessels were
Passamaquoddy bay and other waters
near the mouth of the Bay of Fundy,
the Magdalene Islands and the treaty
shores of Newfoundland. At present
only the last-named region is concerned
in this trade.
healthy man is a king in his own right; an
unhealthy man is unhappy slave Burdock
Blood Bitters builds up sound health-keeps
you WELL