FISHERY INDUSTRIES. 47 



every other. It is apparent that under the "sanitary" system of pack- 

 ing more care must be taken to avoid tainted fish. In the old solder 

 process the first cooking to a degree vaporized the more volatile prod- 

 ucts of decomposition, those which affect the sense of smell, and 

 they were blown off when the cans were vented. In the sanitary 

 process these products are retained and appear when the cans are 

 opened. It is to be presumed that no reputable firm intentionally 

 packs fish which will "smell" in the package, and that such a prod- 

 uct would be turned out only through careless or inefficient super- 

 vision. Firms operating more than one plant would do well to use 

 a distinguishing mark that will make any can traceable to the 

 particular cannery producing it. 



It is believed that the ruinous price recently reached by pink and 

 chum salmon is due in large part to the carelessness in preparing 

 those grades in the past. Both of these species spawning near the 

 sea, the fish are more mature at the time they are taken than are 

 the other species. This results in large numbers being taken, par- 

 ticularly by the seiners who work in the streams or near their mouths, 

 after they are so mature as to be really unfit for canning. When to 

 this is coupled the fact that the pink salmon softens under the best 

 conditions soon after death, it is readily comprehended why in the 

 wholesale machine methods used the product is often unsatisfactory. 

 It is hardly to be expected that, after lying for a time in the bilges 

 of a seine boat, being bruised and punctured by pewing from the 

 boat to a lighter, thence to the dock and again to the butcher, man- 

 gled in the chink, cut odd lengths and obliquely on the cutter, and 

 finally stuffed in the can under pressure at the filler, the much abused 

 humpback should present, when dropped from the can to the serv- 

 ing dish, an appearance of quality that will compete advantageously 

 with the more favored red salmon. Of necessity from its pale color 

 the pink salmon must undersell the red, yet it requires greater care 

 to turn it into a wholesome and a reasonably attractive canned prod- 

 uct. But in spite of its small size and lack of firmness and color it 

 can be made up into a neat package. 



The use of stream fish, "slabsides," that are either delayed runs or 

 fish chased out of the streams, should be discontinued; the substance 

 of the meat of these fish has gone into the reproductive elements that 

 are thrown in the gurry. It is a fraud on the consumer to oft'er it 

 for sale. 



There should be more care used in the handling of the fish prior 

 to reacliing the dock. Fish taken in seines or gill nets, perhaps, nec- 

 essarily are handled more roughly or frequently than trap fish, but 

 this evil can be minimized. Especially the pewing can be more 

 carefully done. No fish should be pewed in the body prior to butch- 

 ering; if alive the wound becomes engorged with blood, and if dead 

 the skin and peritoneum are broken. aUomng all the poison and 

 6711°— 13 i 



