CUEING. 17 



days, " sweated " for two days, then again dried for two days. The 

 object of the "sweating" is to bring the moisture out of the interior 

 of the fish. The drying on the flakes removes the moisture from the 

 surface and crystallizes the salt, but to get the moisture out of the 

 center of the meat the fish must be piled in the kench, where the 

 dry salt takes up some of the remaining moisture, so that the second 

 drying on the flakes has a greater effect. The full-pickle fish lose 

 about 9 per cent of their weight in drying on the flakes. When cured, 

 they retain about 50 per cent of their moisture, the slack-salted re- 

 tain 35 to 40 per cent, and the hard-dried from 25 to 30 per cent. 



In the experimental lots, the loss of weight while on the flakes 

 was as follows: 



of ircif/lil inulcr different condition*. 



The loss of weight recorded was uniformly greater than occurs in 

 le regular factory operation, as the piles were too small to secure as 

 lorough drainage on the waterhorse. 



The Nova Scotia cure differs from the regular pickle cure in that 

 le fish are given a short drying after being skinned. This style 

 f cure is used in the New England trade only, but from the observa- 

 ions made it appears to have some advantages over the regular 

 nethod. The loss in weight from the second drying is from 5 to 8 

 er cent. 



Fish are also dried in large driers built in the factories. These 

 onsist of inclosed rooms in which there are shelves of hot-water 

 upes, above which trays of fish are placed, and the air is made to 

 irculate over them by means of a large fan. These dry kilns are 

 nly partly successful, and they are used chiefly in the drying of 

 xport fish and pollock. The heat from the hot-water pipes may 

 amage the cod, and they are never so white as when exposed to the 

 iction of light. In the writer's opinion, these driers are faulty 

 n construction, in that the heat is applied close to the fish instead 

 >f drying the air and then driving it over them. This would correct 

 ome of the objections to the method, though not all. During the 

 'oggy season in the fall and in the winter large quantities of fish are 

 Iried in these mechanical driers. 

 r,!KJH> Bull. 13311 2 



