THE PRESERVATION OF FISH 197 



spoiling. During fair weather the doors and windows 

 of the smoke-house are opened. If the weather is 

 damp the fires are kindled to prevent the absorption 

 of moisture by the herring. 



The red herring are either sorted into grades ac- 

 cording to fatness and size and placed in wooden 

 boxes, or skinned and boned and sold as boneless 

 herring. Boneless herring are prepared in large 

 quantities in Eastport, Lubec, and other herring- 

 smoking centers of Maine. More than half of the 

 smoked herring are used in the production of this 

 grade of prepared fish, which commands a relatively 

 high price. The preparation of boneless herring is 

 carried out during the fall and winter, when there is 

 little else for the smokers to do. Boning and skinning 

 is also done by the farmers along the coast who do 

 the work for the smokers. Skinning bees are common 

 in Washington County, Maine, where the farmers 

 invite their neighbors to aid them in preparing 

 herring during the long winter evenings. The crowd 

 spend part of the evening in skinning and boning 

 the herring and the remainder in amusing themselves. 



Much of the boneless herring is packed in wooden 

 boxes lined with paper, containing ten, twenty-five, 

 and fifty pounds each. Some smokers pack the fish 

 in small attractive glass jars and tins. Approxi- 

 mately three hundred po-unds of boneless herring 

 are obtained from each thousand pounds of whole 

 smoked fish. Formerly the refuse was sold to farmers 

 for fertilizer at a small price. In recent years much 

 of it has been rendered into oil and fertilizer, for 

 herring oil has been recognized as possessing con- 



