VI. METHODS OF PREPARING SALMON. 



CANNING. 

 EARLY DAYS OF THE INDUSTRY. 



In the salmon industry canning is, and has been almost from 

 the time of the discovery of a feasible method of so preserving the 

 fish, the principal branch. The first canning of salmon on the 

 Pacific coast was on the Sacramento River in 1864, when Messrs. 

 G. W. and William Hume and Andrew S. Hapgood, operating 

 under the firm name of Hapgood, Hume & Co., started the work on 

 a scow at Washington, Yolo County, Cal. The Hume brothers, who 

 came from Maine originally, had been fishing for salmon in the 

 Sacramento River for some years before the idea of canning the 

 fish had entered their minds, while Mr. Hapgood had previously 

 been engaged in canning lobsters in Maine, and was induced by the 

 Humes to participate in order that they might have the benefit of 

 his knowledge of canning methods. The late Mr. R. D. Hume, who 

 worked in the original cannery and later became one of the best 

 known canners on the coast, thus describes the plant and the methods 

 employed : a 



Before the arrival of Mr. Hapgood [from Maine] the Hume brothers had 

 purchased a large scow, on which they proposed to do the canning of salmon, 

 and had added an extension to the cabin 18 by 24 feet in area, to be used as a 

 can-making shop. This had a shed on the side next to the river for holding 

 any cans that might be made in advance of the packing season. A few days 

 after the arrival of Mr. Hapgood [March 23, 1S64], the tools and machinery 

 were packed and put in position. Mr. Hapgood made some stovepipe and two 

 or three sheet-iron fire pots, and in a short time was ready for can making. 

 The following list of tools and machinery will shown how primitive our facili- 

 ties were as compared with present methods: 1 screw hand press, 1 set cast- 

 iron top dies, 1 set cast-iron bottom dies, 1 pair squaring shears, 1 pair rotary 

 shears, 1 pair bench shears, 1 pair hand shears or snips, 1 pair 24-inch rolls, 

 1 anvil (weight 50 pounds), 1 forging hammer, 1 tinner's hammer, 1 set punches 

 for making stovepipe, 1 rivet set, 1 grooving set, 2 iron slabs grooved on one 

 side to mold strips of solder, 1 iron clamp to hold bodies of cans while solder- 

 ing the seams, 1 triangular piece of cast iron about three-eighths of an inch in 

 thickness and 6 inches in length, with a wooden handle attached to the apex, 

 also used for holding can bodies in place while being seamed. 



° The first salmon cannery. By R. D. Hume. Pacific Fisherman, vol. n, no. 1, Janu- 

 ary, 1904, p. 19-21. 



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