The Brattleboro daily reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1913-1955, 1920-07-28
PACKING HERRING.
Important Winter Industry Along Coast
Is Bigger Than Ever.

Is Bigger Than Ever.
An important fishing industry, started
up in Eastport, Me, in I80S, when
Quoddy fisherman first cured large herring
by smoking them over slow burning
wood fires in buildings erected along the
shores or on wharves, is again under way
Bonelcss herring will be prepared at
several large plants during the entire
winter. Most of the smokehouses along
the Washington county towns have been
filled for many weeks with the finest
quality of large herring ever known, and
it has been somewhat difficult to secure
sufficient workers at the few plantas re-
Gently opened. Boneless herring are
packed in neat jars and small wooden
boxes for shipment to all parts of the
globe
Great catches of large herring have been
made every season in all parts of Passa
maquoddy Bay and the Bay of Fundy,
principally in Canadian waters, which
seem to be the natural spawning grounds
for them.
While the first smoke houses were oper-
ated here in 1903, not so many fishermen
are now engaged in this industry as at
I4ubec, three miles away, where the first
smoked herring were put up in 1872
Some of the largest fsh-curing buildings
of the entire coast are to be found within
a few miles of this border section; some
of the buildings being 80 feet long, with
many annexes At some plants 100000
boxes of smoked herring are packed dur
| ing the season, usually late in the fall,
when many schooners loaded with the
| famed Magdalene Island herring are
| brought to PASSPORT harbor Several
| thousand barrels have been handled with
| little difficulty Many thousand hogs
] heads Of fine herring are brought to East
port Harbor, from the 22-mile coast of
/ the island of Grand Manan. n. B., where
| fish are always plentiful all through the
year During the summer months much
of the supply for many sardine factories
was caught there.
When the herring was brought to these
smokehouses hoisted out in baskets and
| dumped on long wooden tables, many
men, women and boys stand ready with
| sharp-pointed sticks in the right hand,
while with their left fingers they grasp a
herring and push the stick through the
| .glls and slide the fish down, and SO on
until % to 35 fish are strung Fast string
! ers can turn out from 500 to 1000 sticks
! in a day Wages have been % to 80 cents
| per hundred sticks, and have frequently
.
dipped in clean salt water to wash off the
scales and dirt, and then placed in rows
on long wooden horses which usually hold
/ barrel of herring, or five horses to a
| hogshead The herring are left on the
horses in the sun or open air to dry for
many hours and are then carried into the
buildings. where the sticks are hung up
| in rows in the bays of the smokehouses,
an average of seven to eight hogsheads OF
herring to many of the bays, and often
running to IA in the smaller buildings,
while at some Of the Lubec smokehouses
there are 80 to 80 bays filled with herring.
As each bay will hold from one to two
hogshead of herring, it can be seen that
an enormous quantity can be handled and
turned ont in a season with many build
ings filled
A few years ago the big herring cost
j from SO to Sl5 a hogshead; a year ago
they were scarce at $50 to S25. But this
! season has been one of the most salts
Il factory in recent years and some OF the
curers secured nearly 300 hogsheads to hl
up their smokehouses early. Prices
during the past season have been 50 tc
j $40 a hogshead In former times one Of
the larger concerns turned out annually
10000 boxes, but with thirty bays hlled
with herring 100000 boxes have been put
up at one of the largest plants at Luoee
The bonelss herring industry, however
Is of more recent date. The smoked hsl
are stripped Of their skins, bones. heat
. and tail packed in many styles OF pack
ages and are now to be found on nearly
every grocery store shelf throughout the
entire country These were IN great de
: mand at hotels, restaurants and the vari
ous places where liquors were served be
fore prohibition came; it has nearly
killed the smoked and homeless herring III
to this winter.
, Nearly two tons of fish can be stripped
from one of the large bays and from bol
; | n 1000 tons have been handled IN recent
seasons.
> An important by-product is the skins
which for many years were disposed OF t.
farmers for fertilizer at $3.50 ton, bu
within recent years valuable OIL has beef
extracted and early in the year ton o
s.clippings'' was worth $50.
The great feet of motor fishing erat
| that had carried enormous supplies 9
: herring from fish weirs from early sprlh
\ until late in October is now idle or haule'
q nm for the winter, as all smokehouses ar
u | 6ued early in the fall When the sardln
/ soason ends the homeless herring bushes
. starts-up. when men and women employe
: arc more plentiful in this part OF tn
coast Many operators of homeless he
e ,ino nIants are receiving supplies Q
amoLed fish. which are turned INTO TOO
that roes into the best homes throughor
tha land and helps to cut down the ing
e cost Of living for many tamhles.-Ne'
y Nort. World