- 
PACIFIC COD FISHERIES. 71 
pany’s oil maker had disappeared and the plant was so badly dilapi- 
dated through the action of the elements that the industry was not 
resumed. 
Later the Union Fish Co. installed a plant at Pirate Cove, but after 
refining a small quantity at no profit to the company, this plant 
was also shut down and has remained so ever since. 
At present the small quantity rendered is shipped just as taken 
from the rotting tank, except that it is first strained. 
Glue and fertilizer—As early as 1893 a plant was started in Cali- 
fornia for the purpose of manufacturing glue from codfish skins 
and other refuse of the packing plants in the States. The material 
remaining after the glue had been extracted was prepared and sold 
as fertilizer. There are now two plants at Anacortes, Wash., and one 
in California which prepare glue in whole or in part from cod. 
It is to be hoped that in the near future small plants for the manu- 
facture of glue and fertilizer will be established at certain centrally 
located stations in Alaska, where the large quantity of heads, entrails, 
and spoiled fish can be utilized and not, as now, thrown into the 
water under the dress houses, where they pollute the water, while the 
bones remaining after the flesh has rotted away are gradually filling 
up the smaller harbors. 
USE OF PRESERVATIVES. 
In 1881 boracic acid was introduced as a preservative in the fish 
industry and was used continuously until 1907, when it was quite 
generally superseded by sodium benzoate. Boracic acid is but rarely 
employed on this coast at the present time, and when so employed 
it is on export fish. If this acid is used it is applied to the fish when 
they are being shifted in the water-horse or to the outside of the 
completed brick. 
Sodium benzoate is almost solely the only preservative used on 
this coast. It is mixed with finely ground salt and applied by means 
of a powdering can like a large pepper box. It is used upon the 
fish in the storeroom if the weather conditions demand it, but its 
principal use is upon the fish as they are being weighed out into 
tablets and bricks. This preservative is used chiefly during the 
warmer months. The amount used is not weighed, but is dusted on 
to cover the whole surface, the effort being to apply from 0.3 to 0.4 
per cent. When this preservative is used the package of fish bears 
the following label or stamp: “Sprinkled with one-half of 1 per 
cent soda benzoate. To remove, soak out in fresh water.” 
Preservatives are never used upon fish shipped to near-by points 
or if the fish are to be consumed very shortly after being shipped. 
Its use is generally upon fish shipped abroad, or fish shipped con- 
siderable distances in this country during the summer months. 
