CANNING SARDINES “L 
being the usual number. The half-oil product is prepared from larger 
fish. 
Other products are put out in small quantities. Half-pound oval 
cans are used at times for smaller fish. Other sauces placed in the 
ean include (in addition to tomato sauce) mustard, souse (vinegar 
and spices), and soy for the orientals. Fancy packs are prepared by 
making fillets of sardines and by smoking to add the delicate flavor 
obtained in that manner. 
The California industry is quite different from any other important 
sardine industry in the following respects: The pack consists for the 
most part of large fish in tomato sauce rather than small fish in oil. 
The can used is oval in shape and holds about 1 pound of contents. 
Canning practically has been secondary in importance to the manu- 
facture of fish meal and oil from whole fish and cannery offal. The 
State law never has required the canners to pack all the fish they 
have taken. The liberal excess that has been allowed has been 
taken advantage of for the manufacture of these products. Inas- 
much as there is more profit in the manufacture of fish meal and oil 
than in sardine canning, every effort has been made to expand this 
branch of the industry. To do this it has been necessary, in order 
to comply with the State law, to can more fish. To get rid of this 
canned fish the price has had to be lowered—low enough, in fact, to 
stimulate a large foreign demand, especially in the Orient, for pound- 
oval sardines. In some places this product has supplanted the 
cheaper grades of canned salmon; in fact, in 1925, for the first time, 
exports of canned sardines exceeded canned-salmon exports. 
_ Whatever advantages or disadvantages the policy discussed above 
may have in the long run, it has brought about large-scale production 
and wide distribution of California pound-oval sardines. Adjust- 
ments are bound to come in the future, which will have their effect 
on the industry. In time pound-oval sardines must sell at a price 
that is based on their own cost of production. Production of fish 
meal and oil can not continue to dominate canning. Table 3, taken 
from the twenty-ninth biennial report of the California Fish and 
Game Commission, summarizes the use to which pilchards are put 
in California. 
TaBLeE 3.—California cannery, fish-flour, and edible-oil plant production, season 
June 1, 1925, to May 31, 1926 







Cases Tons fish Cases 
Tons fish 
Pate 1-pound Tons fish used for a Ay 1-pound 
District oval cans | received eee meal and | Tons offat ovals 
per ton 8 flour packed 
CLG ee 15.6 69, O11 48, 587 19, 832 16, 193 937, 014 
BOUREDOLO sae nee Fe 16.3 61, 992 49, 192 12, 800 16, 643 968, 495 
eae IPE On oe ee Solo 3. 16 5, 214 3, 940 1, 274 1,312 66, 074 
Northern California____._-____ 16 248 194 54 65 3, 892 
Total, all districts_______ 15.9 136, 465 101, 913 | 33, 960 34, 213 1, 975, 475 
Deduct fish used for other pur- 
DOSS 56 SS ee ee) ee eee 8, 247 | Add other sizes, 1-pound ovals____- 65, 382 
Fish used by canning Equal to total cases, 1-pound ovals__| 2, 040, 857 
bia cs Lae Ose (ieee ee ee 128, 218 

a sss 
