CANNING SARDINES D5 
ean be started. This will happen infrequently, because, as stated 
above, the fish usually arrive at the cannery in the early morning 
and cooking can begin at 6 or 7. a.m. Fish that arrive in the after- 
noon, however, will have to be kept until the next morning before 
cooking can begin. Except in rare cases, no difficulty should be en- 
countered in keeping the fish. California pilchards that are in good 
condition keep well if they are “cut,” brined fairly heavily, and allowed 
to remain in the tanks until after the brine has drained from them. 
Winter nights in San Pedro are generally cool, the temperature very 
seldom going over 60°. In exceptional cases, when the weather 
might be very warm or the fish in poor condition when received, 
crushed ice could be spread over the fish in the tanks. This would 
hardly be necessary more than three or four times a season. 
In Monterey no trouble at all is experienced in keeping good- 
quality cut fish 24 hours or even longer at any time of the year. It 
is only necessary to keep them in the tank and circulate water from 
the bay over them. This water is always quite cool. Such fish 
need not be brined at first. If the sea water does not brine them 
sufficiently, they can be covered with a stronger salt solution for a time 
just prior to being used. This procedure probably would work 
equally well in San Pedro in the winter if fresh sea water were 
available. 
It is warmer in San Diego, and consequently it is a little more 
difficult to keep fish in good condition there than in San Pedro. In 
San Diego, however, where the pack is small, equipment probably 
will be preferred which does not include a cooler or special arrange- 
ment for expediting packing operations. Plans for operating under 
these conditions are given later. 
EQUIPMENT RECOMMENDED FOR PREPARING AND HANDLING QUARTER-OIL FISH 
The equipment and plan of operation discussed above apply equally 
well and with the same advantages to the handling of quarter-oil 
fish. There is some doubt in my mind, however, as to how well 
packing from moving flakes would work out for quarter-oil fish. 
Packing from stationary flakes, which the packers remove from the 
conveyer, of course, offers no difficulty as far as actual packing is 
concerned. 
At present trucks are used almost exclusively in Maine for handling 
flakes of fish. Most of the fish are steamed, and this way of handling 
the flakes has worked best for the purpose. Most of the Maine 
canners probably would want to follow present practices as far as 
possible. This can be done by using a cooker without special cooling 
and packing equipment. The fish can be flaked as they are now, 
and go directly into the cooker, as shown in Figure 25 (p. 145). The 
flakes coming out of the cooker can be placed in trucks and then 
handled as at present. 
Trucks for handling flakes in the cooker—The fish can also be 
cooked on flakes in trucks. A simple type of cooker for doing this is 
shown diagrammatically in Figure 28. This particular unit holds 
eight trucks in the main part of the tunnel. At each end there is a 
vestibule with double doors, holding two trucks each. Assuming that 
the unit is operated so that it takes 15 minutes to prepare the fish, then 
eight trucks will pass through the main part of the tunnel every 15 
