76 



Preserving in fermenting rice and in said Ipbs. — These are merely 

 mentioned to show the variety of preserving methods in use. 



151. Canning and of her Western methods. — The Japanese, however, 

 have not contented themselves with old methods, and have developed, 

 partly by the work of their experimental stations, partly by the energy 

 and pushing and progressive nature of the people, a canning industry 

 ■which is already of considerable dimensions and promises a largo and 

 early development. The business was introduced as follows ; in 1877 

 at the Experimental Laboratory started for the encourngement of 

 agriculture, experiments were made in canning fish after the European 

 fashion ; next year several Japanese attended and studied the Paris 

 Exposition (1878) and there learnt the correct process; on their 

 return they established canneries at Tokyo with machines bought in 

 Paris under the orders of Government- About the same time the 

 so-called Colonial Government in Hokkaido also started experiments 

 and engaged two Americans who tauglit the industry to pupils by 

 whom a factory was speedily established ; others afterwards started. 

 At Nagasaki a Mr. Matsuba learned the business from a Frenchman 

 there, and opened a cannery which to this day is doing good business 

 in excellent products. Later on, the China-Japan war proved a great 

 stimulus owing to the demand for canned goods, since which time the 

 industry has been progressing and received a further development 

 during the recent war. At the St. Louis Exposition in 1904, eleven 

 experimental stations exhibited a variety of such goods, one (a mere 

 Fishery School) being prepared to supply 50,000 cans of prawnS 

 annually, while it mentions '' many canneries in these localities where 

 a plentiful snpply " can be obtained. Many private exhibitors, asso- 

 ciations or individuals, also exhibited goods such as smoked salmon, 

 red herrings, mackerel, etc., in the preparation of which the newest 

 machinery, including plant for soldorless cans from Hamburg, was 

 used. At Milan numerous companies and individuals (altogether 40) 

 exhibited excellent goods, five alone exhibiting sardines in oil, besides 

 many others which showed preserved tunny, mackerel, Crustacea, 

 pastes of sorts, salted roes, and so forth. Olive oil is imported for the 

 best goods, a rebate of the import duty being given by Government on 

 aU exported goods in oil, but the Japanese are already considering the 

 possibility of growing this oil, while, as in America, other oils will also 

 be used for less superfine goods. As already stated, a large company 

 with a capital of from 45 to 75 lakhs of rupees was being formed when 

 I was in Tokyo to develop the industry, chiefly for export. Wet 

 pickling in salt is now being also adopted, chiefly by the example of 

 the experimental stations, and at the Milan exhibition I saw stock fish 

 (cod) of the Norwegian character prepared by four Japanese in the 

 Bay of Okhotsk and shown by a private exhibitor, as well as smoked 

 (red) herrings by three exhibitors, and so forth. The pushfulness of 



