Beard. — Canning of Sardines. 129 



Experiments have shown that an important cause of 

 slow drying on certain days is due to a lack of drying for a 

 short time when the raw fish first enter the dryer. The fish 

 may come out of the brine with a temperature several de- 

 grees below the dew point of the air in the dryer and in that 

 case there is some condensation upon them until they are 

 warmed to a temperature above the dew point, and not 

 until then does any drying take place. Several methods of 

 handling this difficulty are available, the question, however, 

 is to pick the best. This is going to be a part of the future 

 research to be carried out in the drying field. How to in- 

 crease the amount of air which may be recirculated in the 

 dryer (and thus save heat) depends in part upon a solution 

 of this problem. It is also planned to further investigate the 

 drying of steamed fish and to study existing commercial 

 installations used for this purpose. The most important 

 work, however, will be upon the use of high temperatures 

 and short times for drying raw and steamied fish. 



A field of major importance is the use of live steam in 

 the preparation of the fish for canning. It is planned there- 

 fore, to make a study of this problem. This is, at present, 

 primarily a question of the Maine industry. 



So far, all actual experimenting has been upon Califor- 

 nia fish and although most of the results can be applied to 

 problems in Maine, yet there are commercial aspects and 

 questions as to the behavior of the fish which must be settled. 

 Some experimenting in Maine with the fish there will give 

 the desired information. This is going to be done in the 

 future. 



Much of the efltect of industrial research of this type 

 and of as general a nature as this has been, is bound to be 

 more or less intangible; however, concrete evidences of its 

 value are beginning to collect. So far only the work upon 

 "Changes in Oil Used for Frying Sardines" has beeen pub- 

 lished. The rest, as previously stated, is now being prepared 

 for publication. 



The results of the investigations and their application 

 to the problems at hand have been discussed with the 

 California sardine packers, most of whom state that they are 

 being of material assistance to them. In the case of a can- 

 nery just getting ready to install equipment for sardine 

 canning on a large scale, it has been possible to plan a dryer 

 which, per ton of fish handled, will occupy considerably 

 smaller space and cost much less to build and operate than 

 any California sardine dryer heretofore in use. The fry- 

 bath is also being designed so that material economies in 

 the use of oil will be eft'ected. In several other cases 



