[5] THE SALTING OF HERRING. 425 



tear it open at the back and smell the backbone. That this is the place 

 where the unpleasant odor will be noticed soonest is owin*;- to the fact 

 that the corruption spreads more rapidly tliron;^li the veins filled with 

 blood which extend alonj^- the backbone than lhrou£;h the fiber of the 

 muscles. By taking the stomach out in time the greatest injury is j)re- 

 vented. 



With a view of practically proving the importance of thorough clean- 

 ing Mr. Iluch made the following experiments with herring, taken in 

 seines outside the Janler, towards the end of June, 18S0. All the her- 

 ling used in these experiments were salted with the same quality and 

 quantity of salt, and kei)t in the same place, viz., a cool cellar. All in 

 all, four quarter-kegs of herring were salted. Of these those which had 

 l)een salted whole were spoiled after 8 days, those which were only cut 

 were spoiled after 14 days, those cleaned in the old Norwegian fashion 

 were spoiled after 14 days, while those cleaned in the Scotch manner 

 were entirely fresh and good after a month, and could, as to their 

 flavor, be jdaced by the side of the finest Dutch herring. Mr. Buch 

 has made similar experiments during the present year, and with the 

 same result. 



If many people in Norway have thought that the thorough cleaning 

 could be dispensed with, the reason for this, as far as the spring her- 

 ring are concerned, is that these fisheries are carried on during the 

 spawning season, when the fish as a rule take little or no food. There 

 are, however, many exceptions in this respect, partly caused by the 

 different stages of development of the^ sexual organs, aud partly by 

 the more or less easy access which the fish have to their food. It is 

 therefore no uncommon occurrence to find herring which are ready to 

 spawn with a stomach full of food. In the Scotch, Dutch, aud other 

 North Sea fisheries it is customary to remove the stomach from the her- 

 ring, unless they are intended for smoking, when they are salted whole. 

 If we followed the same method of cleaning the herring, the products of 

 our fisheries would rise in value. The gills, which are full of blood, 

 should at all events be removed. As regards the summer herring, those 

 which are caught in nets should certainly be cleaned according to the 

 Dutch or Scotch method; those which have been caught in seines will, 

 as a rule, not have any food in their stomachs after they have been in 

 the seine for 4 or 5 days. There maj', however, be circumstances when 

 the fish have not been in the seine for that length of time, and in that 

 case the stomach should be taken out, if the fish are to be kept. The 

 principal reason why we do not clean the herring more thoroughly re- 

 lates to the fat. In iierring taken before the middle of August the 

 fatty matter, as a general rule, is soon eliminated, and the fat turns to 

 train-oil. In that case it should under all circumstances be taken out 

 before the herring are salted, as it will not go away of its own accord, 

 and as the train-oil, which easily hardens, is apt to injure the abdomen 

 in which the process of separation is going on, as well as tlie brine. If 



