The lobsters are bought from smacks and from fishermen in the vicinity
during the height of the fishing season, when the price is low, and
are retained in the pound until the price becomes high, which is
generally during the winter season. They are fed with fish offal,
which can usually be bought at Vinal Haven for $1 per barrel.

Oily fish are not fed to them, as it is said that the lobsters
decrease in weight on such a diet. Experience has shown that the
quantity of food required depends largely on the temperature of the
water, as lobsters do not eat as freely when the water is cold as
in water of a higher temperature. When wanted for shipment they are
usually secured by means of pots, seines, or beam trawls.

Even with such a successful example before them, other dealers were
chary about going into the business, and in 1890 there were only three
pounds in the whole State. They increased more rapidly after that,
however, and in 1898 there were nine pounds in the State, with a total
valuation of $18,700. These were located at Dyer Bay, Sunset, Vinal
Haven, Long Island, South Bristol, Pemaquid Beach, Southport, and
House Island, in Portland Harbor. It is very probable that there will
be a greater increase in the near future.

THE CANNING INDUSTRY.

Maine is the only State in the Union in which lobsters have been
canned. The following account of the inception and early history of
the industry, taken from "The Fisheries and Fishery Industries of the
United States," is very complete:

Lobster canning was first attempted in the United States at
Eastport, Me., shortly after 1840, and was made successful in
1843, the methods finally employed having been borrowed from
Scotland, which country is said to have learned the process from
France. For the successful introduction of the process into the
United States we are indebted to Mr. Charles Mitchell, now of
Charlestown, Mass., a practical canner of Scotland, who had
learned his trade of John Moir & Son, of Aberdeen, the first
Scotch firm, it is claimed, to put up hermetically sealed
preparations of meat, game, and salmon, their enterprise dating
back to 1824. Mr. U. S. Treat, a native of Maine, appears,
however, to have been most active and influential in starting the
enterprise and in introducing canned goods into the markets of the
United States. Mr. Treat was, at an early period, engaged in the
preparation of smok