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Herring- Curing and Packing 1 . 



The curing and packing of herring for shipment from 

 Canada, has been under consideration with a view of improv- 

 ing the methods employed by fish curers and dealers. No 

 doubt Canada is not reaping the full benefit of her extensive 

 herring fisheries, as pickled herring, as a commercial article, is 

 depreciated by the inferior methods of handling the fish from 

 their capture on the fishing grounds until they are placed on 

 the market. 



I have become convinced by an examinat'on of the re- 

 ports which I have caused to be made, that Canadian herring 

 cured and packed more in the manner of the Scotch and other 

 European fish curers, will greatly enhance the value of our 

 herring fisheries. A comparison of prices of Canadian herring, 

 with European herring, sold in the United States, is very con- 

 vincing proof that Canada is loosing heavily by the present 

 inferior methods of catching and pickling these fish. 



For example, in a recent issue of the New York Fishing 

 Gazette, Canadian pickled herring in New York market are 

 quoted from $4.25 to $6.00 per barrel, while in the same market 

 Scotch, English, Irish, Notwegian and Dutch herring are 

 quoted from $n.oo to $12.50 per barrel and are smaller fish 

 than the Canadian herring and not any finer in flavour. In a 

 letter recently written to a Halifax gentlemen by a dealer in 

 Chicago it is stated that 25,000 barrels of Dutch and Norwe- 

 gian cured herring are annually imported into Chicago. The 

 dealer referred to is of the opinion that all or nearly all of 

 Chicago's needs in cured herring might be supplied by Canada. 



It is proposed to ship $1,000 or 1,200 barrels of herring 

 cured in Canada by the Scotch method to New York, Chicago 

 and Germany as an experiment. 



In order to carry out a scheme for the improvement of 

 catching and curing herring in the Dominion, a Scotch expert 

 has been employed to visit the different fishing localities in 

 Quebec and the Maritime Provinces, to report upon the feas- 

 ibility of adopting a practical method of effectively teaching 

 our fishing population how to produce a superior article of 



