PACIFIC SALMON FISHERIES 691 



Mr. Denbigh also operated a hand cannery at Kompakova, on the 

 west side of the Kamchatka Peninsula. 



Up to 1912 very few canneries, and these very primitive affairs, 

 had been built by the Japanese, owing to the uncertainty of tenure. 

 The "canneries" were mere sheds or shelters where the cans — which 

 were brought from Japan, made or half made — were filled, closed, 

 and cooked, furnace-heated, vertical retorts being used for the latter 

 purpose. If the owner lost his concession at the end of the fishing 

 season he simply took his retorts away with him and the buildings 

 were left to his successor. 



In 1912 a Tokyo company (Ichigumi & Co.) put up two canneries 

 near the Ozernaya River in Kamchatka, while a Japanese from 

 Niigata, Japan, also put up a small plant in the same vicinity. Both 

 plants were cheaply built and operated with hand-power machinery 

 and small vertical retorts. That year the two companies together 

 packed about 13,500 cases of salmon. 



The same season Ichigumi & Co. put up another hand-power can- 

 nery, and Tsutsumi & Co., of Hakodate, Japan, built two others of 

 the same type near the Kamchatka River, on the east coast. 



In 1913 Tsutsumi & Co. built a modern cannery at Ozernaya and 

 installed a complete line of American sanitary can-making and can- 

 packing machinery. 



The same year Ichigumi & Co. put up two hand-power canneries 

 near the Kamchatka River, having succeeded to the concessions for- 

 merly held here by Tsutsumi & Co. In 1914 they built a modern 

 plant and installed a complete line of American sanitary can-making 

 and can-packing machinery. 



The St. Petersburg firm of S. Grooshetsky & Co., which has been 

 engaged for a number of years in the freezing of salmon and in the 

 preparation of salmon caviar, under the name of the Pacific Ocean 

 Sea Industry Association, erected a cannery near Ozernaya in 1914, 

 and installed in it a full line of American sanitary can-making and 

 can-packing machinery. This plant will compare favorably with 

 most of our Alaska canneries. The buildings are of iron. 



In 1915 a number of extensive improvements in the way of new 

 buildings, machinery, etc., were made to the various plants, and 

 during the winter of 1915-16 several of the canning firms had repre- 

 sentatives in this country selecting much additional machinery for 

 use during the 1916 season. During the latter season Tsutsumi & Co. 

 erected a large new plant at Kiseka and a one-line plant above Iviseka. 

 This company also operates a can-making plant at Hakodate, 

 equipped with American Can Co. machinery and with a capacity of 

 800,000 cans per day. Owing to the heavy demand, caused by the 

 v/ar, a number of small hand-pack canneries also operated. 



In 1917 A. G. Denbigh built a cannery at Javino, on the west coast 

 of Kamchatka Peninsula. All the machinery in this plant is electric 

 driven. 



In 1918 the ravages occasioned by the war so far as personnel, 

 transportation, tinplate shortage, and market conditions were con- 

 cerned had come to a head, and as a result the Grooshetsky & Co. 

 and some of the smaller canneries did not operate, whUe Tsutsumi & 

 Co. operated only those of its canneries which packed red salmon. 



In 1919 conditions were much more favorable in Siberia, and as a 

 result the three Russian plants which were shut down in 1918 re- 



