178 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. ■ 



itor, without any question, an award for an admirable new method. That man is 

 now using that process on a very large scale in New York for the preservation offish 

 of all kinds, and he claims he can keep them any length of time and allow them to 

 be used as fresh fish quite easily. I don't suppose any fisherman ever thought of 

 using any preservative except salt. 



Q. That is entirely experimental ? — A. It is experimental, but it promises very well. 

 Now, borax is one of the substances that will preserve animal matt er a great deal 

 better thau salt and without changing the texture. Acetic acid is another prepara- 

 tion, or citric acid will keep fish a long time without any change of the quality, and 

 by soaking it in fresh water for a little while the slightly acidulated taste will be 

 removed. I don't believe a cod will know the difference between a clam preserved 

 in that way and a fresh clam. 



Q. Now, about ice. We know a good deal has been done in the way of preserving 

 bait in ice. How far has that got? — A. It is a very crude and clumsy contrivance. 

 They generally break up the ice into pieces about the size of pebble stones, or larger; 

 then simply stratify the bait or fish with tins ice, layer and layer about, until you 

 fill up a certain depth or distance. The result is that if the bait can be kept two 

 weeks in that method it is doing very well. They generally get a period of preserv- 

 ability of two weeks. The ice is continually melting and continually saturating the 

 bait or fish with water, and a very slow process of decomposition or disorganization 

 goes on until the fish becomes musty, flabby, and tasteless, unfit for the food of man 

 or beast. 



Q. Well, there is a newer method of preservation, is there not ? — A. There is a bet- 

 ter method th an using ice. The method described by the Noank witness, by using 

 what is equi valent to snow, allows the water to run off or to bo sucked up as by a 

 sponge. The mass being porous prevents the fish from becoming musty. But the 

 coming methods of preserving bait are what are called the dry air process and the 

 hard freezing process. In the dry air process you have your ice in large solid cakes 

 in the upper part of the refrigerator and your substance to be preserved in the bot- 

 tom. By a particular mode of adjusting the connection between the upper chamber 

 and the lower there is a constant circulation of air by means of which all the moist- 

 ure of the air is continually being condensed on the ice, leaving that which envelops 

 the bait or fish perfectly dry. Fish or any other animal substance will keep al- 

 most indefinitely in perfectly dry air about 40° or 45°, which can be attained very 

 readily by means of this dry air apparatus. I had an instance of that in the case of 

 a refrigerator filled with peaches, grapes, salmon, a leg of mutton, and some beef- 

 steaks, with a great variety of other substances. At the end of four months in mid- 

 summer, in the Agricultural Building, these were in a perfectly sound and prepos- 

 sessing condition. No one would have hesitated one moment to eat the beefsteaks, 

 and one might be very glad of the chance at times to have it cooked. This refriger- 

 ator has been used between San Francisco and New York, aud between Chicago and 

 New York, where the trip has occupied a week or ten days, and they are now used 

 on a very large scale, tons upon tons of grapes and pears being sent from San Fran- 

 cisco by this means. I had a cargo of fish-eggs brought from California to Chicago 

 in a perfect condition. Another method is the hard frozen process. You use a freez- 

 ing mixture of salt and ice powdered fine, this mixture producing a temperature of 

 twenty degrees above zero, which can be kept up just as long as the occasion re- 

 quires by keeping up the supply of ice and salt. 



Q. How big is the refrigerator ?— A. There is no limit to the size that may be used. 

 They are made of enormous size for the purpose of preservi ng salmon, and in New 

 York they keep all kinds of fish. I have been in and seen a cord of codfish, a cord of, 

 salmon, a cord of Spanish mackerel, and other fish piled up just, like cord- wood, dry, 

 hard, and firm, and retaining its qualities for an indefinite time. 



Q. Well, can fish or animals be kept for an unlimited period if frozen in that way f — 

 A. You may keep fish or animals hard dried frozen for a thousand years or ten thou* 

 sand years perfectly well, and be assured there will be no change. 



