364 BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 



nets, as many do, having paid the firms for them in fish; as the nets are 

 not then so liable to be stolen or" damaged. 



The salmon fleet of the Columbia numbers about 1,500 boats, with 

 two men to each boat. Thus there are 3,000 men employed in a busy 

 season. The best material for a salmon net is Barbour's twine, made at 

 Paterson, N. J. Such is the strength of this twine that a siugle thread 

 will sustain a strain of 160 pounds. The cord is made of Irish flax, 

 imported dressed only, and therefore duty free. Brought over in the 

 form of twine an impost of 40 per cent is levied. The cord must be 

 exceedingly pliable, else the sensitive salmon will not enter the net. Tt 

 is therefore made very slack-twisted, but a single turn of the spindle 

 being given to an inch of the thread. Twelve subordinate threads com- 

 pose the twine. Two hundred pounds of twine construct an ordinary 

 net 45 meshes deep, each mesh 9 inches square. When in use a boiling 

 solution of tan is poured over the nets every two weeks during the sea- 

 son. This cleanses them, and also imparts a color which in the daytime 

 prevents the wary fish from perceiving the snare spread for them. 



In the four large houses I visited, Chinamen were doing all the work 

 of canning, under the direction of an American superintendent; and I be- 

 lieve every firm employs them. The process, consisting of not less than 

 a dozen or fifteen different steps, requires at some stages great skill 

 and celerity. For such work the lithe Celestial is well adapted. He 

 is attentive, exact, prompt, faithful, and silent. Garrulous as a parrot 

 with his countrymen usually, he is speechless if set to precise tasks, 

 especially when his wages are to be proportioned to the amount of labor 

 he performs. As witnessed in the establishment of the Cutting Packing 

 Company, the work of canning exceeded in rapidity anything I have 

 ever seen, outside the brush-making establishments in the East. All 

 the steps were in progress in one vast room, from receiving the fish 

 from the boats just in with their night catch, to carrying the filled cans 

 from their cooling bath to the packing room. 



The season begins in April and terminates with August. At its 

 opening the work in some canneries is let out in departments by con- 

 tract, to experienced and responsible Chinamen. These employ their 

 own helpers, pay them by the piece, and then drive them as with the 

 whip. Each subordinate supervises his squad of men and works him- 

 self like a Trojan, and is held responsible for faultless results. Twelve 

 firms on the river are this year conducting their business on this plan. 



Perfect cooking is the all-important step in the process of canning 

 salmon. Failure in this respect insures fermentation and loss of the 

 goods. The salmon is placed in the cans raw, with a teaspoon ful of 

 salt in the bottom of each. The. caus are then covered, crimped, sol. 

 dered, boiled in large tanks one hour by steam heat, then removed and 

 placed for another hour in vast cylindrical iron retorts, kept heated to 

 atemperature of 133°. This cooks the bones. Taken from the retorts, 

 they are cooled off, cleansed from oil, lacquered, labeled, and packed. 



