408 U. S. BUREAU OF FISHERIES 



skinned and beheaded and sold as whiting sticks, in which form they 

 are ready for cooking. Whiting have become popular because they 

 may be handled easily by consumers, can be purchased by a certain 

 number to a pound, are comparatively inexpensive, are a palatable 

 food, and are virtually boneless. They are used extensively in hot- 

 fish shops, where they are served as hot-fish sandwiches, which sell 

 for 15 cents. 



During 1927 there were 62 retail fish stores in Greater St. Louis 

 that handled fish daily. In addition, there were many grocery stores, 

 meat markets, and other retail stores that handled fishery products 

 one or more days a week. 



Of the strictly retail fish stores, 75 per cent cater to the Hebrew, 

 Italian, and colored trade, while the remaining 25 per cent cater to 

 the gentile white trade. The latter appear to confine their purchases 

 of fish to grocery and meat stores or have eliminated fish from their 

 diet. 



Inquiry as to the trade during the week in strictly retail fish stores 

 showed that on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday trade is dull and 

 on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday it is brisk. Some stores remain 

 open on Sunday and reported trade on that day to be mediocre. 

 Stores catering to the Hebrews are busiest on Thursday, while those 

 catering to the gentile trade reported Friday the busiest day. The 

 stores catering to the colored trade reported Saturday and Sunday as 

 the most active days. 



Incoming and outgoing transportation facilities at Greater St. Louis 

 are adequate for efficient and speedy handling of fishery products. 

 Fish are received over four trunk-line routes from the East, three 

 from the West, and three from the South. Terminal team tracks 

 near the majority of the wholesale establishments make loading and 

 unloading of car-lot shipments easy. Car-lot shipments of frozen 

 fish usually are unloaded at one of the public cold-storage plants, 

 which are near the wholesale area where siding space is available for 

 20 freight cars at one time. Cold-storage stocks held during 1926 

 amounted to about 6,700,000 pounds. 



Jacksonville, Fla. — As the waters in the vicinity of Jacksonville 

 support no extensive commercial fisheries, the wholesale dealers of 

 this city merely assemble and distribute rather than produce fishery 

 products. Only 5 per cent of the fishery products received in the 

 city in 1926 were produced in the immediate locality, and 60 per cent 

 were distributed to points outside the city. 



Possibly no other city in Florida is situated so favorably with 

 respect to Florida production centers and transportation fw.d ware- 

 house facilities. Trunk-line railroads from all the important fish- 

 producing centers of Florida converge here and then spread out to the 

 more important fish-consuming cities of the country. Warehouse 

 facilities are such that both fresh and frozen fishery products can be 

 handled efficiently and regularly. 



In 1926, the 10 wholesale dealers handled nearly 10,000,000 pounds 

 of fresh and frozen fishery products of 48 varieties with a wholesale 

 value of about $1,500,000. Florida supplied about 85 per cent of 

 these products, and the remainder was received from 10 other States 

 and 1 Canadian Provmce. Most of the products received from 

 Florida are reshippcd to other markets, while those from other 

 States are consumed largely in Jacksonville. Of the total received, 



