602 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



ent forms from the most remote regions of the eartli, and most recently ia 

 the fresli state and in immense quantities, ATithont thereby causing any 

 trace of a tendency towards a decline of the prices of articles of food, 

 which, moreover, are advancing just as uniformly as they have been for 

 the past decade. Under such circumstances there is probably not the 

 remotest reason for supposing that the articles here treated of, if thej', 

 as remarked, are brought to market in a perfectly fresh state and at a 

 lower price than is paid for other articles of food of greatly inferior value, 

 will be unsalable even if the whole estimated quantity is marketed 

 abroad. In north Germany alone, which can produce but few fishes of 

 this kind and quality, there are many millions of people who would pre- 

 fer them to other food if thej could be had at a reasonable price, which 

 for these millions means four to five times what is here estimated. 



But this transportation in the fresh state to a distant place, which, of 

 course, is not entirely unknown, but is practiced in a manner which can 

 give but little security for the perfect preservation of the article duiing 

 many days or weeks, may perhaps be considered both costly and trouble- 

 some. In order to remove all uncertainty in this direction, I shall state 

 that carrying of fresh meat from America to England in steamers specially 

 arranged for the purpose costs 30 shillings sterling per ton; that is, 

 $7,425 per 1,000 kilograms, or seven- tenths of a cent per kilogram ; an ex- 

 pense which is nothing in comparison with the increase in the calculated 

 price which is to be expected in a foreign market. This is the cost of both 

 transportation and refrigeration, which requires ice bought where it ia 

 high and the use of machinery during the whole time of transportation^ 

 together with expensive fittings of the rooms wherein the transportation 

 goes on. The price of refrigeration alone can also not be placed higher 

 than half — seven-twentieths of a cent per kilogram — which equals one- 

 fifth of a cent per pound for an average period of about fourteen days. 

 In all places where fish will be reared, the collection of the necessary 

 quantity of ice costs nothing, as it will be done by the persons occupied 

 in the business as a whole, and paid for it by the whole year. Salt is 

 required for freezing, but it is only changed from a solid, dry body to 

 pure liquid brine, and as in this form it can be used for all ordinary pur- 

 poses just as well as in the solid food this article also thus costs noth- 

 ing. The preserving-house and apparatus for freezing are very simple 

 things, which can be provided once for all at an expense which must be 

 a very small fraction of what the arrangement of a ship's room for trans- 

 iwrtation by refrigeration of fresh meat represents. 



The exijenses of freezing fish and their preservation for a long time 

 in a refrigerator during a transportation of eight to fourteen days in the 

 frozen state cannot thus possibly be more than the previously-mentioned 

 cost of transportation across the Atlantic Ocean ; and this expense, 

 stated to be seven-twentieths of a cent per kilogram, is only a small 

 fraction of the previouslj'-estimated outlay for preserving, transporta- 

 tion, and packing, 2'1 cents i)er kilogram. 



