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 smoked salmon on the Penobscot River, and in 1839
removed to Calais, Me., where he continued in the same business.
About 1840 he associated with him a Mr. Noble, of Calais, and a
Mr. Holliday, a native of Scotland, who had also been employed in
the salmon fisheries of the Penobscot River, under the firm name
of Treat, Noble & Holliday. This firm moved to Eastport in 1842,
for the purpose of starting the manufacture of hermetically sealed