PACIFIC SALMON FISHERIES. 121 
LABELING. 
While machines have been made for this purpose, and some of 
them are in use, the work is usually done by hand. A number of men 
or women seat themselves about 4 feet apart in front of the pile of 
cans. Each man has in front of him a package of several hundred 
labels, and by bunching them on a slant so that successive margins pro- 
trude beyond each preceding, he can apply paste to the entire number 
with one stroke of the brush. A can is placed on the label, is quickly 
rolled, and the label is on much quicker than one can tell it. Each 
man places to his right the cans he labels, forming a pile of length and 
width equal to his unlabeled pile, and when the entire lot has been 
labeled it has been shifted only about 4 feet. Cans of fancy brands 
of salmon put up on the Columbia River and in the Puget Sound 
region are wrapped in colored tissue paper before the label is put on. 
Cartons similar to those used by the sardine packers would make good 
containers for fancy brands and would be much cheaper than the 
present method, 
Some of the canners now have their labels lithographed directly 
on the tin, and the whole covered with a transparent la quer. 
Several attempts have been made to popularize salmon packed in 
glass and porcelain jars, and while these have met with some favor, 
it was not sufficient to warrant a continuance of the practice for any 
length of time. But few are being so packed at the present time. 
BRANDS. 
A very important feature of the canning industry is the selection 
of appropriate brands or labels for the various grades of salmon. 
Each company has a number of these, which it has acquired either 
by designing them or by absorbing another company which owned 
them. <A well-known brand has a value in itself and sometimes is 
a very important asset. A company will sometimes market a con- 
siderable part of its product in one section, and here, where the 
consumer has become familiar with the brand and pleased with the 
contents of the can, he will ask for and accept no other, despite the 
fact that the latter might be, and probably is, the equal of the 
product he has been using. | 
For many years but few salmon canners appreciated the value of a 
can label, and it has taken some bitter experiences to drive home to 
the rest that a properly designed label placed upon good goods and 
the owner protected in its use by the law has real value, just as much 
as boats, nets, buildings, machinery, or the thousand and one material 
things required to carry on the business. 
A free trade definition of a label would be that it is an artistic 
representation or intellectual production, stamped directly upon an 
article of manufacture, or upon a slip or piece of paper or other 
material, to be attached in any manner to manufactured articles, to 
bottles, boxes, and packages contaiming them, to indicate the contents 
of the package, the name of the manufacturer, or the place of manu- 
facture, the quality and quantity of the goods, directions for use, ete. 
Labels are subject to the copyright law and should be registered 
before use or publication. If not registered, there is no protection 
in law against infringement. The continued use of a label, however, 
