138 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



sumed in experimenting, so that it was not until a year ago that we 

 really commenced to manufacture, though prior to that we put up some 

 goods. Last year, 1873, we packed and sold about 30,000 dozen whole 

 cans or boxes. We have now capacity to turn out double that amount 

 and we expect to be obliged to do so, as our trade is rapidly increasing. 

 Our goods have received various awards, including a medal of merit at 

 Vienna in 1873, and a silver medal at Bremen in 1874." 



During the season of 1877, the works of the American Sardine Com- 

 pany were not in operation. Mr. Beals, the secretary, informs me that 

 the manufacture will be pressed strongly in 1878. 



The qualities of American sardines. 



190. Many persons are incredulous with regard to the possibility of 

 manufacturing sardines of good quality from the menhaden. It need 

 only be said that they have been carefully tested by mauy unprejudiced 

 judges in the city of Washington, and that the verdict has always been 

 that they were almost equal to French sardines of the best brands. 

 There can be no reasonable doubt that if olive oil of good quality were 

 to be substituted for the cotton-seed oil now used in the preparation of 

 American sardines, they would be fully equal to similar articles imported 

 from abroad. 



The American sardines should be carefully distinguished from the 

 sardines prepared at Eastport, Me., from young herrings; they are 

 sealed up in tin cases imported ready-made from France, and are put 

 upon the market in the guise of foreign goods — a misrepresentation 

 which is not at all necessary, since they are quite as good as the articles 

 with which they profess to be identical. 



Menhaden preserved in spices. 



191. There are other establishments near Port Monmouth which pre- 

 pare menhaden in spices and vinegar under the trade names of "Shad- 

 ine," "Ocean Trout," aud "American Club-fish." I have been unable 

 to obtain statistics of this branch of manufacture. Hoope & Coit, of 

 New York, contributed samples of these preparations to the Centennial 

 collection of the United States Fish Commission, and I suppose this 

 firm to be engaged in the manufacture. 



"Russian sardines" are prepared at Eastport, Me., from the herring, 

 and are branded with spurious names and labels imported from Germany. 



Mr. Barnet Phillips describes, in the New York Times, a visit to the 

 "ocean-trout" manufactory at Port Monmouth. He writes: "If the 

 name of the salmonidce be taken a little in vain, the trout manufactured 

 out of moss-bunkers are by no means to be despised. "Ocean trout" 

 may not be the garum cooked with Tragasoean salt, but is a fair fish- 

 food and as an alimentary substance is in good demand. The process 

 of manufacture is simple. The fresh fish are scaled by machinery, by 

 means of a revolving wheel, are then cooked in steam, packed into 



