456 U. S. BUREAU OP FISHERIES 



When shipping to the Atlantic seaboard the dealers usually select 

 the season from November to March and load the fish in refrigerator 

 cars. The latter are cooled but little during the shipment. In ship- 

 ping lesser distances the fish usually are stowed in ordinary box 

 cars. Sometimes these box cars are shunted onto sidetracks and held 

 for days at a time, and should the temperature rise above 65° F. 

 during this period and under these conditions reddening is apt to 

 appear. 



The better plan is to have cold-storage depots located in trade cen- 

 ters. The fish could be shipped in refrigerator cars to these depots 

 frequently, where they could be put in storage. The retailers could 

 then be encouraged to order the fish in small lots, say, enough to 

 last for a week or 10 days, and thus they would always have on hand 

 comparatively fresh fish. 



In their eagerness, however, to do business the jobbers frequently 

 overload the retailer, with the result that the fish dry out to such an 

 extent that the salt crystallizes upon it and the fish presents an un- 

 attractive appearance, while if the temperature rises above a certain 

 point reddening is apt to occur should conditions be ripe for it. 



Grocery stores are the chief handlers of cod, and but few of them 

 are properly equipped for doing this. It is but rarely that a cus- 

 tomer who enters one of these stores will see dried cod on exhibition ; 

 or, if he does, it is usually whole fish jumbled up in a case and pre- 

 senting an unattractive appearance. Usually the fish is kept in a 

 back room or the cellar and is brought out only when the customer 

 orders it. As many customers are in an uncertain frame of mind 

 as to what they want when they enter a store, and usually decide 

 after a glance over the visible stock, it follows naturally that but few 

 ever order salt cod, and, owing to the extra labor involved in bring- 

 ing the cod from the back room or cellar, the clerks rarely ever call 

 the customer's attention to its existence. 



If the retailer fitted up a small refrigerated show case with glass 

 sides and top somewhere in the store proper, he could not only keep 

 in this his dried cod, especially the bricks, tablets, middles, etc., 

 which could be tastefully arranged on china trays, but could also 

 display a number of other articles that require to be kept in a 

 cool place and that usually are sold in grocery stores, such as 

 smoked fish, pickled fish, etc. 



With the fish displayed thus prominently before the customer, his 

 attention is at once attracted to it, and he is much more liable to pur- 

 chase it than if the product were kept out of sight and only produced 

 when a customer called for it. 



The greater part of the bricks and tablets are now wrapped in 

 white parchment paper with the brand and a little lettering printed 

 on it in a neutral tint. A few of the more progressive dealers wrap 

 them in the parchment and then inclose the package in an ornately 

 lithographed wrapper. The latter makes a very attractive appear- 

 ance and undoubtedly aids in calling the attention of the consumer 

 to the product, particularly if it is displayed as recommended above, 

 as is the case in a few of the high-class delicatessen stores. An even 

 better method would be to pack the bricks and tablets in lithographed 

 cartons made to hold certain sizes. On one side recipes for cooking 



