CANNING SARDINES a 
Drying.—Experience has shown that some form of drying is neces- 
sary before the fish are placed in hot oil. Originally drying was 
done in the sun and wind, but now artificial driers are used. Those 
used in the California industry, although they vary greatly in size 
and design, are all tunnel driers, so named because a long, narrow 
room or tunnel is used to confine the air that is forced or drawn 
through it. This air first passes over steam coils, then comes in 
contact with the fish spread loosely over wire flakes or belts. Some 
of these drying chambers are as large as 3 feet wide, 8 to 10 feet high, 
and 50 to 75 feet long, and handle as much as 6 tons of ‘‘cut’’ fish 
per hour. 
The fish usually are handled on endless wire belts. One carries 
them to the top of the drier and drops them upon another, which 

Fic. 5.—California pilchards before and after being ‘‘cut”’ 
carriers them through it. They then fall on a belt traveling in the 
opposite direction. A set of such belts, placed one below the other, 
repeats this operation several times before the fish leave the drier 
(see fig. 8). In some driers but one long belt is used and in others 
tiers of flakes containing the fish are wheeled on trucks through the 
chamber. This latter type of drier is used for fish that have been 
teamed and that can not be tumbled about in the same way as raw 
sh. 
The time of drying is controlled by changing the speed of the belts 
or the rate of putting in and taking out trucks. Temperature is the 
other factor under control. This is regulated by changing the amount 
or pressure of the steam in the heating coils. Ordinarily the fish 
are dried about 30 to 60 minutes in air having a temperature of 
