158 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



[Frederick F. Diniick, secretary Boston Fish Bureau.] 



I have had a few of the silver hake which you sent rue cooked and placed on my 

 table. I found them very good eating, tasting very much like salt codfish. They 

 were prepared for the table in the same way salt codfish usually are. There is a 

 taste to them, however, that one who eats much codiish easily discovers, but I con- 

 fess that I could hardly tell the difference. 



[John Pew & Son, outfitters and wholesale risk-dealers, Gloucester. j 



We have carefully considered your inquiry in regard to the Avhiting, or Old Eng- 

 land hake, as we call them. They are quite common in the market as cheap fresh 

 fish, but without any demand otherwise. In regard to their value for general trade 

 as cured fish, we have doubts of their being handled with any success in any direc- 

 tion. They are of a long, slender, soft nature, very expensive to handle as far as 

 labor is concerned. Fresh, they equal the hake in most ways of cooking and to 

 some minds are as desirable as the haddock or cusk, but do not compare with the 

 cod. Dried, and salted especially, they would be so thin and unattractive that they 

 could not be sold for a price that they really would cost after the labor and expenses 

 were put upon them. Efforts have been made years ago to handle them in different 

 directious, but without success. The common hake, which is of a better substance, 

 being harder, are much preferred to the whiting in quality and are much cheaper to 

 handle. The common hake has a large liver, valuable sound, and considerable pea 

 [spawn], all of which are of commercial worth. The cost of the common hake 

 dressed and salted, after crediting the value of livers, etc., is much less than the 

 whiting. We would answer your specific inquiries, therefore, as follows: 



The commercial importance of the whiting as prepared in your sample, namely, 

 in pickle, would be very small, indeed, and it is doubtful if any considerable market 

 could be obtained for them. We do not think a market could be found iu either the 

 United States or Canada at a remunerative price. The whiting being of such a soft 

 nature we think it would be impossible to process them in any way, either by smok- 

 ing or canning, as it would leave a soft substance of very small value, for which it 

 would be hard to secure a market. They are not very fat and would not smoke, as 

 do the herring, and keep for transportation, though lightly smoked for immediate 

 consumption they are very good, but even then without much commercial value. 

 We have made no attempts at skinning or boning them, but think as the skin is quite 

 tough and the flesh very soft the flesh would be torn and its worth proved very slight. 



[Oscar Andrews, with Benjamin Low, wholesale salt-fish dealer, Gloucester.] 



You have asked my opinion as to the introduction of whiting to the trade of this 

 country for export. I was one of the partners of the house of Andrews & Co., who 

 were in the shipping business in this city from 1878 until 1888. We did quite a busi- 

 ness in Canada from 1881 until the expiration of the treaty in 1885. In 1882 we 

 introduced the whiting to that trade and sold several hundred barrels pickled. They 

 seemed to give perfect satisfaction in every case. At any rate, the parties who first 

 took hold of them ordered again and again. We prepared them iu exactly the same 

 way as codfish, splitting and salting them in precisely the same way. The second 

 year we split them on the backs, as we do mackerel, and it made trouble for the rea- 

 son that they hurt near the bone. This was our own fault; we should have let good 

 enough alone. We did not try to introduce these fish to the trade of the United 

 States in 1882, as Canada took all that we prepared, and we could really have sold 

 many more than we did there if we had salted more down while the school was on 

 our coast. I think there is a party iu this city who has been canning them for sev- 

 eral years. There are no better eating fish than whiting. Every person who has 

 ever eaten one of them broiled will a»ree with me on this point. They would make 

 a very nice smoked fish, and would really be far superior to finnan haddie, but unfor- 

 tunately they are a summer fish and would soon spoil if shipped any distance. As 

 dried fish they would be a failure, for, owing to having a little fat in the flesh, they 

 rust very quickly. I should say on the whole that whiting shipped fresh, packed in 



