152) THEISLAND ACADIANS

“The wages they earn during the summer help them get through the long hard winters during which they have no remunerated work.” (TR)!

These jobs only lasted for two or three months. On an average, in 1887 men employed in lobster factories received 30 dollars a month, and women 12 dollars a month"'. As we have said, the majority of men worked as fishermen and the women were employed in the plants. However, any fisherman who did not own his own boat did not really receive a salary. In fact he was paid according to his catch—in other words about 55 cents for one hundred lobsters'”?. Obviously the men who could afford their own boat had a higher income depend- ing on the size of the catch, which varied from one year to the next. Needless to say, a bad season played havoc with the welfare of the fishermen. Such was the case in 1882. That year the Moniteur Acadien predicted hard times for fishermen: “This misfortune is going to weigh heavily on the fishermen who, for the most part, have no other means of subsistence.” (TR)!

Many fishermen depended entirely on fishing and, in general, could barely subsist. Their small income did not enable them to provide a decent living for their large families. They were forever indebted to their employers who gave them loans to outfit their vessels and to buy molasses, flour and other staples. In many cases these same employers also owned the stores.

The fishermen and fish plant workers were often either farmers’ sons or farmers themselves. Fishing enabled them to supplement the meager income from the farm. Their situation was less precarious than men who depended entirely on fishing since at least they could feed their families with the produce from their farming operation.

The shortage of available farmland for the younger generation and the dividing up of existing properties forced young men who wanted to stay on the Island to turn to the sea. Indeed, these cir- cumstances prevailed in most of the Acadian parishes. The large parish of Tignish was no exception, as Pascal Poirier pointed out in 1875:

The parish of Tignish is comprised of eight hundred families, almost all of whom are Acadian. The vast majority of the inhabitants are involved in fishing and farming. [...] The soil is very fertile and it would appear that the farmers in Tignish know how to exploit this fertility. But the head of the household cannot expand or increase his holding for the simple reason that there is no