THE SARDINE INDUSTRY. 489 



5. TEE SARDINE INDUSTRY. 



1. ORIGIN AND DEVELOPMENT OF THE BUSINESS. 



THE WOKK IN FRANCE. The idea of packing small fishes in oil under the name of "sardines" 

 seems to have originated in France, where for many years the people have been accustomed 

 to catch and prepare small fish that would be nearly valueless for other purposes. But though 

 the business began in a small way many years ago, it is only within the last few years that it 

 has assumed important proportions. Mr. Frederick M. Wallem, of Norway, in his Report of the 

 French Fisheries, as exhibited at the Paris Exposition in 1878, states that in 1850 France produced 

 only 3,000,000 cans of sardines, and that eight years later the quantity had increased to but 

 10,000,000. At the time of writing (1878) he states that the business developed rapidly, and that 

 there were between fifty and sixty establishments engaged in the work, quite a number of them 

 producing several millions of cans each during the season. 



THE BUSINESS IN OTHER PARTS OF EUROPE. Seeing the advantages to be derived from this 

 business other countries have interested themselves in the work, and at the present time many of 

 the principal countries in Europe utilize some one or more of their small fishes for packing and 

 sale under the name of sardines. According to Mr. Wallem, Italy, Spain, and Portugal, in 1878, . 

 produced considerable quantities of sardines in oil in addition to their large trade in "pressed 

 sardines," and Sweden and Norway have for some time been exporting small herring in oil under 

 the name of sardines. Japan also has recently begun to develop a sardine industry which seems 

 destined to assume important proportions. Germany has also for some time been extensively 

 engaged in packing small herring in barrels with various spices, and now exports large quantities 

 of them under the name of " Russian sardines." From the above it will be seen that though France 

 still leads the nations of Europe in the business she has by no means a monopoly of the trade; 

 and it is only a question of a few years when some of the other countries will, on account of the 

 abundance of some particular species and the readiness with which they can be secured, become 

 formidable rivals in the business. 



FIRST EXPERIMENTS IN THE UNITED STATES IN WHICH HERRING WERE USED. The case 



with the United States is very different from that of the European countries. The latter have, 

 from their nearness to France and their intimate relations with the French, been constantly coming 

 in contact with the various phases of the sardine industry, and have had no difficulty in watching 

 the new developments that have been introduced from time to time, while they have been more or 

 less familliar with the methods and details of the business. Americans, on the contrary, have had 

 little knowledge of the work beyond that obtained from the manufactured goods imported by the 

 trade, and it was only recently that our people came to understand that fishes different from those 

 used by the French were being put up in other countries under the name of sardines. 



Having learned this much, the Americans were not slow in examining into the subject to see 

 if some of our own fishes could not be utilized for the same purpose. The first to act in this matter 

 was Mr. George Burnham, of the firm of Burnham & Merrill, of Portland, Me., who are among 

 the largest packers of canned goods in the United States. In answer to a letter of inquiry Mr. 

 Burnham replies : 



"The idea of using the small herring as a substitute for the sardines occurred to the writer 



