Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 19, Number 95, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 August 1898 — MAINE SALMON. [ARTICLE]

MAINE SALMON.

Made Famous by the Late James G. Blaine. Highly Esteemed aud Costly Slnct They Were Boomed at the Republican Convention of 1880— The Catch. There are nearly 200 weirs between Prospect Ferry and the foot of Sears Island, eight miles below, and though some of the well-to-do fishermen indulge in the luxury of a salmon dinnei now and then, they always buy canned fish, because Oregon and Alaska salmon sell for ten cents a pound, while a pound of the same spebies of fish taken from Penobscot river will bring 3C cents as soon as the fish is caught. For these reasons the local fishermen sell all their catch in Boston and cities further west, receiving large pay foi fish which are no better than fish which swim in Puget sound. Thdugh several reasons have been assigned for this difference in price, the late James G. Blaine is said to have been the man who brought Maine salmon into high repute. In the summer oi 1880, a short time before the republican national convention was to assemble in Chicago, a hotel keeper of the Windy City, knowing that Mr. Blaine was to be a leading candidate, wrote to an Augusta fish dealer an order for a ton oi Kennebec river salmon, believing that fish that were caught from this river, which flowed by Mr. Blaine’s home would be a popular dish with the supporters of the Maine candidate. Though the Kennebec river has not yielded a ton of salmon in 50 years, the Augusta market man did not see fit to mention the fact, but came to Bucksport, bought his fish, put them on ice and sent them on to the hotel, where they were served and billed on the menus as “Kennebec salmon a la Blaine.” Senator Conkling, of New York, and a few other members of the famous “300” refused to eat'of the dish, but most of the guests ate it and liked it. and the reputation of Kennebec salmon became national. Every year since then the Augusta market men have received orders for salmon from all parts of the country, and have had them filled in Bangor and other places on the Penobscot; and though Oregon salmon is equally 7 good, the Maine fish always brings better prices. Sixty years ago salmon were so plentyin the Penobscot that farmers hauled them onto their land’by the cart loao

and used them for dressing for potatoes and corn. There was no need of weirs then, for a hedge built out into tidewater from the shore would capture more |n one tide than all the present weirs take in a season. Mr. Pierce, an old citizen of this town, says that he has seen an acre of mud fiats covered from five to ten fish deep with salmon caught below one hedge, and when the water got low on the ebb he has seen the mud thrown 30 feet in the air by the struggling fish. Then all the teams in the neighborhood were kept hauling until the tide came back and put a stop to the work. In 1845 Alvah Page, of Bucksport, hauled 14 cart loads of salmon from his weir in one tide and thinks there were as many more dead ones which he could not get for the coming tide. Though he did not weigh them, he believes that he took more than 30 tons of salmon at that time. Besides salmon, there were thousands of great fat shad and tons and tons of alewives and porgies. At present the business is at so low an ebb that able-bodied men cannot afford to follow it, so most of the work is done by old men and boys. The average catch of a Penobscot river weir is two or three 15-pound salmon a week. Though a few shad are caught now and then, and though a dozen or more drop in nearly every tide, the labor of keeping night watch, the expense of repairing weirs and boats, and mending marlin, and the general watchfulness which are required in order to make the business a success uo not yield sufficient returns to warrant the erection of new weirs. The best customer for the Penobscot salmon fishermen is the United States fish hatchery at Orland, which buys 1,000 to 1,500 salmon a year, paying a few cents above market price for live fish. These salmon are kept in tanks until November, when they are stripped of their eggs and milt, marked with a number and dated tag, and turned loose into the sea. Many' fishes have been caught Tour and five times, though none of them comes back to the river until the seceond season after being liberated. The young fry which hatch in the winter are kept until the next fall, when they are shipped to all parts of the country. Many are sent abroad in exchange for fish of other species.—N. Y. Sun.