California War Papers. 



in the Ih't'r. This makes it much more 

 nourishing, because fat is one of the most 

 valuable food substances, and is the chief 

 source of animal energy and heat. Weight 

 for weight, silted herring has a greater 

 nutritive value than most meats and other 

 fish. The low price of herring brings it 

 within the reach of all and makes it pre- 

 eminently the poor man's food, although 

 it is equally popular with the poor and 

 rich in European countries. 



Enormous quantities of herring are con- 

 sumed in this country annually, and but 

 a very small proportion is prepared here, 

 most being imported from Scotland, Nor- 

 way, Holland and Canada. The Scotch 

 and Norwegian cures are the most popular 

 with the herring eaters of this country, 

 many of whom came originally from either 

 Great Britain or the Scandinavian coun- 

 tries. 



Immense schools of herring frequent 

 both our Atlantic and Pacific coasts, and 

 if proper efforts were expended in building 

 up a fishery we could in a few years time 

 pack enough annually to supply our domes- 

 tic demand and have some left over for 

 export. At the present time our Pacific 

 coast fishermen wait until the schools 

 come into our protected waters for either 

 spawning or feeding purposes, which re- 

 stricts the fishery very materially both as 

 to time and the quantity packed. In 

 European waters the fishermen go out to 

 sea to meet them, and if our fishermen 

 were to do this the pack could be vastly 

 increased, while it is probable that the 

 average size of the fish caught would be 

 considerably greater. 



Canada and Newfoundland have fos- 

 tered their herring fisheries until today 

 they largely exceed ours both in quantity 

 and value. Canada has brought experts 

 from Europe to study the migrations, 

 habits, etc., of the species, while other 

 experts have been secured to show the 

 fishermen the best methods of preparing 

 the fish for market. 



This year the U. S. Bureau of Fisheries 

 sent an expert to this coast for the purpose 

 of showing the Alaska fishermen how to 

 cure the fish, and it is hoped his visit will 

 result in a considerable improvement in 

 the pack. 



The chief trouble with the domestic 

 pack has been that the packers, many of 

 whom are fishermen with no shore plants, 

 or grossly inadequate ones, have fre- 

 quently insisted upon curing the fish in 

 the manner which appealed most to them- 

 selves, and with practically no regard to 

 the wishes of the ultimate consumer. 

 Slipshod methods of dressing, cleaning and 

 curing the fish have also prevailed, while 



great negligence, to put it mildly, has 

 been shown in packing the fish. The chief 

 evil has been that many packers have put 

 big and little fish together in the same 

 barrel. Buyers of herring should know 

 the approximate, if not exact, number of 

 fish to the barrel, and if the packer has 

 not properly graded his fish according to 

 the standard sizes and packed these in 

 separate barrels the buyer will naturally 

 offer the fisherman a much lower price 

 than if they had been properly graded, as 

 before he can offer them to the jobbing 

 houses he must empty every barrel, grade 

 the fish properly, and then repack, mark- 

 ing on the outside of each barrel the 

 approximate number of fish in it, and all 

 this costs money and requires time. 



From 500 to 650 fish to the barrel is 

 the most popular size. Some, however, 

 will run nearly a thousand to the barrel, 

 a rather small size for pickling, while I 

 have packed some Shumagin Island, 

 Alaska, herring which ran as large as 

 225 fish to the barrel. 



In 1916 some pickled herring from 

 Alaska brought as high as $14 a barrel 

 at Seattle, while many others couldn't be 

 sold at any price because of poor curing 

 and packing. 



SARDINES For some years two plants 

 have been operated in Monterey, Cal.. 

 packing sardines in one-pound ovals, while 

 several plants operated intermittently in 

 southern California packing sardines in 

 |-, \- and f-pound cans. The great reduc- 

 tion in the importation of sardines from 

 Europe, due to the war, caused a heavy 

 demand for domestic goods, and in the 

 fall and winter of 1916 a number of the 

 tuna packers took up the business after 

 the tuna season was over, with the result 

 that 172,125 cases of all sizes were packed, 

 while a still larger pack will be made in 

 1917 ; and should the demand warrant it 

 a still larger pack can be made, as the 

 supply of fish is almost limitless. The 

 packers are rapidly introducing the most 

 up-to-date methods of handling and pack- 

 ing the fish and will have a rigid inspec- 

 tion system installed, thus assuring the 

 consumer a choice, sanitary article of 

 food that will compare favorably with the 

 best eastern and imported brands. In 

 1916 Maine canners packed about 

 1,600,000 cases of sardines, and there is 

 no physical reason to prevent Pacific 

 coast packers from equalling this, pro- 

 vided the domestic market can be per- 

 suaded to take them, and the experience 

 of our packers with their packs of 1916 

 and 1917 would seem to indicate that 

 this is not only possible but quite prob- 

 able. 



