webs, the domestic manufacturer is dependent upon imports for his raw materials. Because of the methods used in preparing domestic flax for spinning, the little flax produced is not suitable for gill nettings, nets, and webs, which require the strongest and best of flax.

Most of the flax imported for this purpose comes from Ireland, where it has been hackled to remove foreign materials and short and uneven fibers. Previous to 1914 hackled flax usually formed the lowest percentage of the different classes of flax imported. Imports of hackled flax during the years of 1910-1913 totaled about 1,500 tons, or 14 per cent. In 1914, upon the removal of the specific duty, of which the ad valorem equivalent had been about 11 per cent, imports of hackled flax rose to 2,590 tons and maintained this level during the next four years. Since 1918, however, imports of such flax have declined, amounting to 1,878 tons during the fiscal year 1922. The domestic production of linen thread and twine is much larger than imports. In 1914 domestic concerns manufactured 5,707,668 pounds of linen thread, valued at $3,409,136, and 4,953,622 pounds of flax twine, worth $1,051,684. In the year ended June 30, 1914, imports of thread, twines, and cords of flax, hemp, or ramie, which were unusually large, totaled 784,936 pounds, valued at $442,674. In the calendar year 1919 the domestic production of linen thread amounted to 4,280,000 pounds, valued at $6,691,000, while imports of thread, twines, and cords of flax, hemp, or ramie amounted to 328,856 pounds, valued at $623,283.

Domestic manufacturers of fish nettings and nets, however, find it necessary to import a substantial part of their linen yarn, threads, and twine. A concern which sells the product of a number of netting mills, and of one net and netting mill, reports that these mills in 1914 imported about 21 per cent of all the linen yarn, thread, and twine employed in that year in the manufacture of fish nettings and nets and in 1919 about 20 per cent.

There are no figures available showing the quantities of flax consumed in the domestic manufacture of this class of fishing tackle. A comparison of the raw materials used in nets of foreign make shows that the flax used is equal, if not superior, to that employed in nets of domestic manufacture. In workmanship there is little difference in nets made from fine linen and from fine cotton. Domestic nets of coarse linen and of coarse cotton, however, are superior to those made abroad in point of workmanship and, in nets of cotton, also in the grade of material used.

Cotton is the material usually employed in the manufacture of seines. In the manufacture of gill nettings and nets, cotton is freely substituted for flax. For instance, where the mesh in the gill net is not over 3 inches, thread made of long-staple cotton can be substituted for the finer sizes of linen thread.

The use of cotton in the fish netting and net industry has increased until in 1920 the quantities employed exceeded those of linen. In recent years, particularly during the war, owing to the scarcity of flax and to the relatively low price of cotton, there has been a marked substitution of cotton for linen. No figures are available to show the extent of this substitution.

Soft hemp is not used to any extent for fishing tackle. Under normal conditions the little hemp used is imported, as the hemp grown in the United States is not suitable.

Manila, the chief material for making domestic ropes and marine cordage, is used by the domestic fish-netting industry in the manufacture of trawls, which are bag-shaped nets. British competition restricts domestic production of trawls, which are becoming more and more important in the fishing industry. The domestic producer, however, faces no difficulties in securing his supplies of raw manila. During the fiscal years 1910-1918 imports of manila fiber for manufacture, which are duty free, ranged between a maximum of 93,308 tons and a minimum of 49,287. In the calendar years 1919-1921 imports for consumption averaged 55,835 tons, having been 31,503 tons in 1921. The duty on manufactures of manila was 35 per cent in the act of 1913 and is 40 per cent in the act of 1922.

Ramie has not been used in this country as a raw material in the manufacture of fish nettings, nets, webs, and seines. One domestic manufacturer attributes this to the fact that ramie is not well adapted to gilling purposes; that the fiber is too hard, though it feels soft. Early in 1920, however, the Japanese were endeavoring to introduce fishing appliances made of this fiber.

Domestic consumption.-Fishery apparatus employed in the fisheries of the United States and Alaska is valued at not less than $15,000,000. The greater part of this investment is in nets, netting, and lines of cotton, flax, hemp, etc. Much of this material must be replaced annually or at the end of the second year. The annual investment is believed to be not less than $5,000,000.

Pound nets, traps, and weirs represent 42 per cent of the total investment in fishery apparatus; gill nets, 28 per cent; seines, 12 per cent; lobster pots, 4 per cent; and lines, 3 per cent. Many other forms of fishing apparatus which make use of webbing are employed; these include fyke nets, stop nets, beam and other trawls.

The approximate number and value of various forms of fishing apparatus used in the United States are shown in the following table: Fishing apparatus of the United States. [Based on reports of the U. S. Bureau of Fisheries.]

Equipment. Gill netting is manufactured almost exclusively by machinery. The greater number of the nets, however, are made by the fishermen themselves, the manufacturers supplying the web and perhaps the lines, floats, and leads, and the fishermen assembling them during idle or off-season periods.

Methods of production. The manufacture of netting is complicated. The nets are made of practically any size thread and any size mesh; often the same nets contain a combination of various sizes of mesh.

Organization. The same firms specialize in fishing articles made of linen and of cotton. The nature of the fishing industry is such that it is necessary for these firms to keep large and quickly available stocks of supplies to meet the sudden and irregular demands of the fisheries.

The greater part of the flax nettings and webs consumed in this country is sold through the agency of one company, which is the selling representative of a combination of the largest American and English mills producing linen threads, twines, nettings, and nets.

Geographical distribution. The manufacture of nets and seines is practically confined to the eastern part of the United States. Of the 19 establishments manufacturing these articles in 1919, 68.42 per cent were located in Connecticut, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Illinois, and Maryland. Of the other six, only two were not in the Eastern States; one in Missouri and one in Washington.

Domestic production. The combined production of a number of domestic firms engaged in the manufacture of linen nettings and nets was about 28,000 pounds greater in 1914 than in 1919.

In point of quantity, the combined production of nettings, nets, webs, and seines made from cotton is several times greater than that manufactured from flax.

In contrast to the production of fishing appliances made from linen, the production of such articles made of cotton was greater in 1919 than in 1914.

The quantity of gill nettings, nets, webs, and seines made in this country from hemp is negligible. Ramie is considered unsuitable for the manufacture of this class of fishing tackle.

EXPORTS.

Exports are not separately recorded in American export statistics. The trade with Canada, however, which admits such articles free of duty, shows the strong position held by American manufacturers in the Canadian market, and indicates the strength of the leading foreign competitors.

Imports by Canada from the United States of fish lines, nets, trawls, seines, twines for fishing nets, without reference to the textiles used in their manufacture, and of manila rope not exceeding 1 inches in circumference for use in fisheries, averaged annually about $600,000 for the years 1910-1914 and about $916,000 for the years 1915-1918. For the years 1919, 1920, and 1921 Canadian imports from the United States were valued at $1,469,788, $1,528,337, and $1,295,266, respectively, and constituted more than half the value of Canadian total imports of such articles for use in the fisheries. For the period 1910-1914 the United States furnished Canada with 52.37 per cent of all her imports; for the period 1915-1918, 56.62 per cent; and for the years 1920 and 1921, 63.60 per cent and 48.09 per cent, respectively. The United States shares Canada's import trade in fish nettings, nets, webs, and seines with the United Kingdom. Only in 4 of the last 20 years, viz, 1902, 1908, 1915, and 1921, have imports from the United Kingdom exceeded ours. From these two sources Canada receives all but 2 or 3 per cent of textile articles used in her fisheries. Japan is the only other country that has within recent years furnished more than 1 per cent. For

the periods 1910-1914 and 1915-1918 the percentages supplied by Japan were 1.56 and 0.087, respectively. For the years 1920 and 1921 the percentages were 1.15 and 1.02, respectively.

Fifty per cent of the fish nets exported into Canada, it is estimated, are for American fishing concerns operating there. In turn, a very large percentage of the fresh-water fish caught in Canadian waters comes here and constitutes a large part of the fish consumed in the Middle West.

According to the report of the domestic company which sells to the trade the larger part of the netting and nets consumed in this country, Canada, Norway, Denmark, and Sweden received the greater part of the goods exported in the years 1914 and 1919.

Domestic exports of gill nettings, nets, webs, and seines made of cotton are many times greater than those made of flax. Reports from a number of companies show that their combined shipments abroad in 1914 of cotton netting were six times, and in 1919 about seven times, greater than their shipments of linen netting. The same companies report considerable shipments of purse seines during the year 1919.

Export trade in recent years has not suffered to any great extent from the competition of substitutes or from the tariff operations of any country. The only handicap has been the world shortage of flax since the beginning of the World War.

Drawback.-The quantity of exports of linen fish nets, made from imported materials, designed for foreign consumption and exported with the benefit of drawback, is large and about equal to that of nettings, nets, webs, and seines of flax, hemp, or ramie imported for domestic consumption. During the years 1905-1919 the quantities of fish nets imported with the benefit of drawback were slightly greater. As compared with a total of about 376,000 pounds of fish nets made in this country from imported materials and exported during these years with the benefit of drawback, imports of nettings, nets, webs, and seines manufactured from flax, hemp, or ramie for domestic consumption, totaled about 365,000 pounds. By five-year periods, beginning 1905, shipments abroad of flax fish nets exported with the privilege of drawback were greatest during the middle period 1910-1914, when they were about two-thirds in excess of the quantities shipped during the five years immediately preceding or immediately following. Total exports for each five-year period were: 1905-1909, about 102,000 pounds; 1910-1914, about 170,000 pounds, and for 1915-1919, about 104,000 pounds. During the fiscal year 1920 the quantity so exported was 25,590 pounds, on which the drawback paid amounted to $10,050.

FOREIGN PRODUCTION.

The United Kingdom is among the world's foremost producers of fishing tackle. The average yearly value of her exports of fishing tackle, which classification includes hooks, nets, lines, and twines used for fishing purposes, without reference to the materials from which manufactured, were during the years 1915-1918, about 37 per cent greater in value than for the previous five years. As compared with a yearly value of $2,051,419 for the years 1910-1914, her exports for the next four years, 1915-1918, averaged yearly $2,829,436. In 1919 they amounted to $5,002,460, but in 1920 dropped to $1,064,323 in value.

j

Japan's total exports of fish nets to all countries, not including Korea, declined from 492,904 pounds in 1913 to 321,347 pounds in 1915. During the next three years they increased to 1,004,892 pounds in 1918. In 1919 they were 1,048,405 pounds, valued at $534,891, and in 1920, 768,741 pounds, valued at $632,576.

IMPORTS.

American import statistics are limited to those showing the quantity and value of gill nettings, nets, webs, and seines of flax, hemp; or ramie, entered for consumption; they make no mention of countries from which imported.

For the first three years of the World War, imports of this class of flax fishing tackle ranged between 21,000 and 30,000 pounds. With totals of 66,644 and 48,684 pounds for the fiscal years 1918 and 1919, respectively, imports were the greatest on record during the past 20 years. For the five fiscal years 1915-1919 imports of linen nettings, nets, webs, and seines averaged yearly 38,634 pounds, as compared with 9,827 pounds for the corresponding period, 1910-1914, and 24,500 pounds for 1905-1909. In the fiscal year 1920, 14,000 pounds were imported.

That imports were so large during the years 1918 and 1919, when flax was difficult to obtain, owing to the lack of transportation facilities and to the collapse of Russia as a grower of flax, is due to the fact that the United States Food Administration fostered the growth of the fish-netting industry during American participation in the war by assisting in obtaining its greatly increased requirements.

Though the tariff acts of 1913 and 1922 have added hemp and ramie to flax as the materials from which fish nettings, nets, webs, and seines might be made, the above figures remain comparable, imports of those made of hemp or ramie having been negligible.

The United Kingdom is the chief foreign source for domestic supplies of flax materials used in the fisheries. The value of her exports to this country of hooks, nets, and lines, given without reference to the materials from which constructed, show a marked decline during 1910-1913 and a corresponding increase during 1914-1918. They fell from $213,729 in 1910 to $110,221 in 1913. During 1914-1918 ranging between $193,205 and $272,534, they averaged yearly $227,450, while in 1919 and 1920 they amounted to $251,160 and $66,720, respectively.

What data there are available show that our imports of this class of fishing tackle consist chiefly of linen gill netting. The domestic firm which supplies the trade with the greater part of its fish nettings and nets states that previous to the war there was imported annually into Portland, Oregon, a very large quantity of salmon gill netting of flax from Great Britain.

Flax yarns not finer than 5 lea are the leading yarns used in the construction of imported fish nettings, nets, webs, and seines. For instance, the percentages of our total imports manufactured from yarns not finer than 5 lea were 76 in 1900, 88 in 1905, and 58 in 1910.1 Imports of cotton fishing nets from Japan have increased since 1915. In the years 1910-1914 our consumption of Japanese nets.

1 The sizes of the yarns used in the manufacture of imported flax gill nettings, nets, webs, and seines arenot given after 1913.