960 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OP FISH AND FISHERIES. 



but in the case of the beef-trade to-day an average of 80 tons of ice per 

 100 tons of meat has to be carried, where a machine, occupying a ten -ton 

 measured space, would insure better results, and guarantee the shij)per 

 against the consequences of delays at sea, from broken shafts or other 

 causes. 



Again, in the fish business the practice of freezing fish hard, and stack- 

 ing them like cords of wood, may turn out to be an indispensable method 

 for certain purposes ; but the ice and salt process which I saw in 1808 in 

 this country continues to-day, whereas it is easy to demonstrate that the 

 art of artificial freezing should not amount to 25 per cent, of the cost of 

 using ice at $3 to $1 per ton, and salt at best market prices, with all the 

 labor of breaking and mixing. 



Enterprising business men may justly state that up to this time 

 promises have been scarcely fulfilled by the inventors of ice-machines, 

 and, that the bold assertions in illustrated pamphlets, issued by persons 

 interested in the sale of machines, have been hypothetical, often posi- 

 tively untrue, and -no means were afforded to enable, even competent 

 engineers, to determine on the probable issue of any costly trials. With 

 this position of matters fairly in view, the laws and data controlling 

 the practical production of artificial cold have been stated as fully as 

 possible in a memoir of necessarily limited extent; and whilst it is not 

 claimed that the subject has been in any sense exhausted, the intention 

 has been of stating nothing but the truth, and of completing the task 

 hereafter. 



It is not, therefore, too much to hope that the more enlightened fish- 

 culturists, who may have a knowledge of physics and chemistry to test 

 and extend the information given, will contribute, by their influence and 

 encouragement, to favor the development of rational and economical 

 means, for the accomi)lishment of the various objects herein briefly un- 

 folded. 



W.— PRESERVATION OF BAIT AND FISH. 



The proper storage and preservation of sound bait is one, if not the 

 most important, part of a fisherman's business. Mr. Brown Goode has 

 stated the iiroblems to be solved on this question as follows : 



1. To provide means by which a Grand Bank cod-schooner can carry 

 100 barrels of bait, in a compact mass, and in such a state of congela- 

 tion that it can be used for eight or ten weeks. 



2. To provide means for the refrigeration and preservation, for six 

 months or more, of a quantity of bait amounting to at least 100,000 or 

 150,000 barrels. 



Prof. Goode, moreover, informs me that it is difficult to estimate the 

 total amount of bait consumed by the Gloucester fleet. Large quanti- 

 ties are salted for use in the mackerel, cod, and halibut fishery. About 

 35,000 barrels of "round fish" are cut up and salted for this purpose. 



The George's Bank cod-fleet consume annually, something like 80,000 



