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the fish without pieinfi the saliih'. tastt. Thera are pTopamtioiia by means of which oysters or clams or 

 fish can be kept in solutions for six mouths without getting any appreciable taste, iiml without involving 

 the slightest degree of deterioration or destruction. One process submitted to the group of judges of 

 ■wJiom I was chairman, was exhibited by an experimenter who placed a great jar of oysters in our room 

 jirepnred in that way. 1 tliink about the 1st of August those were placed in our room, 

 and they were kept there until the middle of September, for .six weeks, during the hottest portion of 

 the Centennial Simimcr, and that was hot enough. At the erd of that time wc mustered np courage 

 to pass judgment upon this preparation, and we tasted these oysters and could not find them affected. 

 We would have i)referred absuhiti'ly i'rcsh oysters, but there was nothing repugnant to the sensibilities, 

 and I believe we consumed tlie euiiru jar. And we gave the exhibitor without any question an award 

 for an admirable new nu'thnd. That man is now using tliat proce.'s.s on a very large scale in New 

 York for tlie jirescrvation of tish of all kinds, and he claims ho can keep them any length of time and 

 allow them to be used as ficsli tish quite easily. I don't supjiose any tishermun ever thought of using , 

 any preservative except salt i^i" 



" (). Well, there is a newer method of preservation, is there not ? — A. There i.s .a better method 

 than using ice. The method described by the Xoank witness by nsing what is equivalent to snow, 

 allows the water to run oil or to be sucked up as by a si)onge. The mass being porous prevents the 

 lish from becoming musty. 15ut the coming methods of preserving bait are what is called the dry air 

 process and the hard freeziwi proce:.i. In the tlry air process you have your ice in large solid cakes in 

 the upper jiart of the refrigerator and your substance to be preserved in the bottom. By a particular 

 mode of adjusting the connection between the upper chamber and the lower there is a constai'i; circu- 

 lation of air by mesLj oi which all the moisture of the air is continually l>eing condensed on the ice, 

 leaving that whio'.i envelops the bail or tish perfectly dry. Fish or other annimal substance will 

 keep alnio.^t indelinitely in perfectly dry air about 40 degives or 45 degrees, which can be attained 

 very readily by means of this ilry air apparatus. I had an instance of that in tlie case of a 

 refrigerator tilled with peaches, giiii)es, salmon, a leg of mutton and some Iwefsteaks, with a great 

 variety of other substances. At the end of four months in niid.siinuner, in the Agricultural T5uilding, 

 these were in a perfectly sound and jirejiossessing condition. No one would have hesitated one 

 moment to eat tlie beefsteaks, and one iiiiglit be very glad of the chance at times to have fh(!m cooked. 

 This refrigerator has been used bpl^^•een San Francisco and New ^'ork, and betiveen Chicago and New 

 York, where the trip has oicupicd a week or ten days, and tliey are now used on a \ery large .scale, 

 tons upon tons of grai)es and ])ear3 being sent from San Francisco by this means. 1 had a cargo of 

 fi.Mi eggs brought from California to Chicago in a perfect condition. Another method is the hard froscn 

 process. You use a freezing mixture of salt and ice jMiwdered tine, this mixttire prodtu'ing a tenipera- 

 tiire of 20 degrees above zcio wliirli ciiu be kept up just as long as the occiusion requires by keeping 

 np the sujiply of icr and .^alt. 



" i). llow big is th(^ rclrigeiatoi ' — .\. There is no limit to llie size that may be used. They are 

 made of enormous size lor the purposi; of preserving salmon, and in New York they keep all kinds ot 

 tish. 



" ij). Now, to come to a jiractical question, is this a mere matter of theory or of possiiile use. For 

 instance, could this method be adapted to the preservation ofbait for three or four months, if nccessnrv ' — 

 .V. The only ((uestion of course is as to the extent. There is no question at aU that bait of any kind can 

 be kept indefinitely by that process. I do not think there \vo\dd be the slightest dithc\ilty in buiiding 

 a refrigerator on any ordinary H.-^hing vessel, cod or halibul. or otlier tishing vcs.sel, tliat shoidd keep 

 with perfect ease all the bait neces.'sary for a long voyage. I have made some inquiries .is to the 

 amount of ice, and I am informed by Mr Itlackford of New York, who i.s .:• '' the h:rgcst ojierattn's 

 of this mode, that to kee]i a room t»'n feet each way, ov I.IKKI cidiic^ feel at a tem)H'ratnre of 

 lill ilegrees above Z(>ro, wo\ild require aWnit li.OOl) jiounds of ice, and two bushels of .salt jier week. 

 With that he thinks it could lie done without any dilliculty. Well, an ordinary vessel would require 

 about seventy-live barrel, of bait, an ordinary trawling vessel. That would occu])y a bulk something 

 less than GdO feet, so that jnobably four and a half tons of ice a month would keep tli.at fish. Audit 

 must be remembered that liis estimate was for keeping tisii in midsummer, in Ninv York. Tiie lishiiig 

 vessels would require a smaller e\]ieiiditure of jet' as liies{' vessels would be surrounded by a colder 

 temperature. .V stock of ten to twenty tons would in all jirolialiility be amply sudicient bolli to 

 replace the waste by melting, and to ]ireserve tlie bait. 



" (^>. Have you any doubt tiiat some metluc! like that will ')e put into immediate and successful use, 

 if there is sullicient call for it ? — \. I have no doubt the exiieriment will be tried within a twelve- 

 month. Another mei'.L.d of preserving is by drying. Squid, for instance, and clams, and a great many 

 other kinds of bait can be dried without using any appreiialile chemical, and can Ik; readily sii<'tnied in 

 water. I noticed lately in a Newfoundland jiaper a iiaragraiib recommending tliat in view of the fact 

 that the squid are found there for a limited period of time the ]ieople should go into the industry of 

 ilrving squid for liait. so tliiit it wcv.ilil always be avaiialile for tiie ]iurpose of cod-llRl.ing, I lliiiik the 

 suggestion is an excellent one, and I have no doubt it will be carried out. 



" <^. Now, what is the siipjily of bait for cod-lish on the .Vniericim coast ' — A. Well, as the cod-lisli 

 eats everything, there is a prettv abundant stock to call upon. L)f course the bail tish are abiMclaiU, 

 the iiKMibaden and herring. The (Uily bait lisii that is not found is the capliii. The herring is very 

 abundant on tiie .\inerican coast, and the alewives enormously abiimiant. Squid are very abundant of 

 two or three species, and. of course, clams of various !;inds. Then we have one shelllish that we 

 possBss. It is never u.sed here altlioiigh it is very abundant, liul it is almost exclusively the bait for 

 trawling on the coast of (Ireal Hritain. This shell is known as the whelk or winkle. 



" Q. From all you have learned, have you any doubt that, supposingthe fishermen of the United 

 States were precluded from iisiiii; any bait except what could be got upon their own coast, they 

 could obtain a sudicient supply there ?— A. Well, unless the .\merican fishery should he exjianded to 

 very enonuous limits, far in excess of what it is now, 1 can't see that there would be any dilliculty." 



