118 DIFFERENT MODES OF CURING THE HERRING. 



to the inspector for branding ; and if any herrings are 

 packed in old or insufficient casks, or if the barrels have 

 not been examined and branded by the inspector, the 

 herrings shall be seized, and a penalty exacted for each 

 stave defective. Moreover, the barrel-inspector is liable 

 to punishment if he willingly passes any defective barrels. 



Hoops. — The hoops must be whole bar*l hoops, of the 

 proper quality of red hoops, being of a particular kind of 

 luilloiu grown in Holland, called the Dutch willow, a 

 variety of Salix alba, with a brownish bark. No barrel 

 shall be exported having fewer than fourteen hoops, and 

 the herrings caught after St Jacobi's day must have six- 

 teen hoops. Each barrel of herrings, as they are cured, 

 must be marked by the coopers or packers, and on the 

 inside with their private mark, under the inspection of 

 the master. 



Marks and Brands. — When the herrings are produced 

 to the inspector (bracker or keurmester) , he compares the 

 marks of the quality with the stock, and upon the end 

 of the barrel sees cut with a marking-iron the distinctive 

 marks of the quality. 



The fine salt herrings, before they can be repacked or 

 branded, must be two days in pickle after they are taken, 

 under a penalty. The small salt-wrack herrings, being 

 full herrings of inferior quality, must be also branded 

 with distinct marks, indicative of the quality and time 

 of cure, besides the jorovincial or local brands. 



Merchants must not send herrings away, cither for 

 home consumption or exportation, without applying their 

 customary mark to the barrels, which mark they must 

 previously communicate to the secretary at the place of 

 their residence, so that the same may be registered. 



No herrings can be branded with the large or Rouen 



