PACIFIC COD FISHERIES 453 



prepared each season, the quantity depending upon the demand 

 and price. 



All the oil was prepared by rotting the livers in large vats or 

 hogsheads, and the resulting product, after being strained, was 

 shipped in this condition. 



In 1899 the Alaska Codfish Co. installed a refining plant at its 

 Kelleys Rock station, in Alaska, and operated it successfully until 

 100 barrels (iron-lined receptacles holding 20 gallons) had accumu- 

 lated, when they were brought to San Francisco and the oil offered 

 for sale to makers of emulsion of cod-liver oil. At that time the 

 market was overloaded with this grade of oil and the best price 

 offered was about what the container cost, so the oil was stored and 

 the plant shut down. A few years later the market picked up and 

 the oil was disposed of at $22 per barrel. In the meantime the com- 

 pany's oil maker had disappeared and the plant was so badly 

 dilapidated through the action of the elements that the industry was 

 not resumed. 



Later the Union Fish Co. erected a plant at Pirate Cove, but after 

 refining a small quantity at no profit to the company this plant was 

 also shut down and has remained so ever since. 



At present the small quantity rendered is shipped just as taken 

 from the rotting tank, except that it is first strained. 



Glue and fertilizer. — As early as 1893 a plant was started in Cali- 

 fornia for the purpose of manufacturing glue from codfish skins 

 and other refuse oi the packing plants in the States. The material 

 remaining after the glue had been extracted was prepared and sold 

 as fertilizer. There are now two plants at Anacortes, Wash., and 

 one in California that prepare glue in whole or in part from cod. 



It is to be hoped that in the near future small plants for the 

 manufacture of glue and fertilizer will be established at certain 

 centrally located stations in Alaska, where the large quantity of 

 heads, entrails, and spoiled fish can be utilized and not, as now, 

 thrown into the water under the dress houses, where they pollute 

 the water, while the bones remaining after the flesh has rotted away 

 are gradually filling the smaller harbors. 



USE OF PRESERVATIVES 



In 1881 boracic acid was introduced as a preservative in the fish 

 industry and was used continuously until 1907, when it was generally 

 superseded by sodium benzoate. Boracic acid is employed but 

 rarely on this coast at the present time, and when so employed it is 

 on export fish. If this acid is used, it is applied to the fish when 

 they are being shifted in the water-horse or to the outside of the 

 completed codfish brick. n 



Sodium benzoate is almost solely the only preservative used on 

 this coast. It is mixed with finely ground salt and applied by means 

 of a powdering can, like a large pepper box. It is used upon the 

 fish in the storeroom if the weather conditions demand it, but its 

 principal use is upon the fish as they are being weighed out into 

 tablets and bricks. This preservative is used chiefly during the 

 warmer months. The amount used is not weighed but is dusted on 

 to cover the whole surface, the effort being to apply from 0.3 to 0.4 

 per cent. When this preservative is used the package of fish bears 



