30 COD AND OTHER SALT FISH FOR THE MARKET. 



A number of fish having more or less reddening were dried until 

 all growth ceased. A test of the moisture content showed a range 

 from 33.2 to 39.2 per cent. 



There is a limit to which the drying can proceed commercially. 

 The hard-dried Italian cod has a moisture content of 28.6 per cent, 

 and the Porto Kican or export cod from 31 to 35 per cent. Both of 

 these are drier than would be used in domestic trade, and both will 

 redden, because the salt used will take up moisture when the atmos- 

 phere is very humid. Fish dried to such an extent could not be used 

 in cakes, and all fish to be skinned should not contain less than 46 or 

 48 per cent of moisture. The Nova Scotia cure is the only exception 

 to this rule, and in this case the fish are dried again after skinning. 

 The only fish in which there was no spoilage was of this cure and the 

 water content was from 41 to 43 per cent. They did not have the 

 appearance of being excessively dry, and it is believed that they could 

 have been made into very good cakes. The lowest point to which the 

 drying can be carried and make good cakes, and the upper limit at 

 which the fish will keep under commercial conditions, remain to be 

 determined. 



EFFECT OF THE DIFFERENT KINDS OF SALT ON SKINNING AND 



APPEARANCE. 



The fish cured with the different kinds of salt were given numbers 

 so that the employees in handling them would have no knowledge of 

 the kind used and would not be prejudiced in favor of one or against 

 another. 



The fish cured for twelve days skinned better than those cured for 

 twenty days, but all except one lot were said to skin very well. One 

 lot was pronounced to be " sunburned," though only slightly so, 

 causing some softening about the napes. This lot had been cured 

 with the finest salt used. The fish cured with the regular salt used 

 in the factory were identified as " working up as the fish usually do." 

 The fish cured with the coarse refined salt were said to skin most 

 easily, showing the least tearing, and presenting the best appear- 

 ance. When the cured fish were submitted to a number of fish 

 packers for judgment as to quality and appearance, there was a dif- 

 ference of opinion, and some were unable to distinguish between the 

 fish cured with fine salt and those cured with coarse salt. 



EFFECT OF EXCLUSION OF AIR. 



It was observed that reddening occurred only on fish which were 

 exposed above the brine in the butts, and in the few cases in which 

 reddening was present below the surface of the brine it was a fair 

 assumption that the brine had leaked at some time and exposed the 



