176 U. S. BUREAU OF FISHERIES, 
Under this form of contract the packer is expected to be ready to 
fulfill the terms of same, except in case of a short pack, when the 
orders are generally prorated; i. e., all orders are proportionately 
reduced until they come within the compass of the pack. Should 
the buyer dislike the opening price he has the privilege of canceling 
the order. While this latter privilege may not, at first glance, look 
just to the packer, yet it is doubtful if any buyer would place a 
“future” order unless he was assured of a chance to cancel it should 
he feel that too high a sum was fixed in the opening prices. 
Some canneries contract to sell their entire output to one buyer, and 
the price fixed is usually the opening prices for the year in question. 
In such cases the buyer and seller are both compelled to abide by the 
price, no matter how unjust one or the other may consider it. 
The association does not announce its opening prices until late in 
August or early in September, when the greater part of the packing 
is over with and a good line on the total pack has been obtained, and 
it speaks well for the discernment of the officials of the association 
that their judgment as to prices should meet with the general approval 
as often as it does. 
AMERICAN OPENING PRICES. 
Below are shown the yearly opening prices on the various grades 
and sizes from 1890 to 1919. Toe most interesting part of this is 
the increase shown in the value of high-grade salmon. Columbia 
River chinook was quoted at $1.05 for 1-pound talls in 1897, and it 
eradually advances until in 1919 it is quoted at $3.15. Alaska red 
1-pound talls in 1897 sold for 90 cents, the lowest during the period 
in question, advancing, with occasional recessions, until in 1919 it 
reached high-water mark of $3.25. In 1897 Puget Sound 1-pound 
tall sockeye sold for 80 cents, 10 cents below Alaska red. In 1898 it 
sold for 20 cents less than reds. In 1902 it sold for $1 as compared 
with 95 cents for Alaska red, and from that time on brought a higher 
price, being quoted at $3.15 in 1919 as compared with $2.35 for 
Alaska red. No sockeye 1-pound talls were packed in 1919. 
Medium red or coho does not figure in the opening prices until 1908, 
when Puget Sound coho sold for 5 cents a dozen more than Alaska 
coho. Very shortly thereafter, however, both were classed together 
and sold for the same price. This grade has not had the wide fluc- 
tuations of the others, due mainly to the generally small pack made 
annually. 
Pink salmon has been the football of the salmon market ever since 
the pack became of sufficient size to become a feature in it. The 
size of the pack has been steadily increasing, as the fish became 
better known, and while the price obtained has been excellent in 
certain years (in 1911 it sold at $1 per dozen, the highest point 
reached up to that time, usually the price has been low. In 1897 it 
was quoted at 65 cents. In 1915 the opening price was 75 cents, but 
as a matter of fact a large part of the pack really sold for 65 cents. 
The lowest point it reached was in 1903, when it was quoted at 50 
cents a dozen. As a result of the demand created by the war pink 
salmon opened at 90 cents in 1916, $1.65 in 1917 and 1918, and $2.25 
in 1919. The market collapsed under the last-named price, how- 
ever, and is now (1920) not more than one-half of it. 
