REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF FISHERIES. 159 
to cook the salmon twice. After the retort is filled the door is 
securely fastened and the steam turned on, entering at the bottom. 
The amount of pressure is about 6 pounds, sometimes 12 pounds, the 
heat 250° F. In some establishments the first cooking is continued 40 
minutes, but 60 minutes is considered by most cannery men the proper 
time for it. 
After the first cooking the crates are taken out and placed on a long 
table, called a ‘‘venting table,” where the cans are pricked to allow 
the steam and superfluous water to escape. The method of pricking 
is to use a small mallet with a short brad in the center. From 30 to 
40 cases are placed on the table, and some six or eight Chinese, with 
mallets in hand, go over the entire lot with great rapidity, striking 
each can with a quick, sharp blow. With each stroke a jet of steam 
and fluid issue forth, rising to the height of 3 or 4 feet. No particu- 
lar spot is aimed at; usually the puncture is made from one-half to 
three-fourths of an inch from the center of the top, and after the 
pricking or venting has been done the holes are soldered up. Dur- 
ing this process an occasional defective can is found, and these are put 
aside to be repaired, a can which has been mended being substituted. 
When all the cans have been gone over the coolers are again loaded on 
the trucks and rolled into the second retort, where they are subjected 
to the same pressure of steam and heat as in the first cooking. 
Tt is claimed by nearly all cannerymen that if the cans were kept in 
the first retort long enough to complete the cooking the amount of 
steam generated would spoil the contents. It is understood that Mr. 
William Munn, superintendent of the cannery at Alitak, Kadiak Island, _ 
has successfully experimented with one cooking, but so far as known 
none of those fish have been placed on the market. Mr. F. A. Seufert, 
however, owner of a cannery at The Dalles, Oregon, has been placing 
on the market for the last five years salmon which have undergone but 
one cooking, and says that not a single case has been returned. 
The same species of salmon in different localities often requires dif- 
ferent treatment, the method to be determined by observation. As 
the same superintendent usually has charge of a cannery each season, 
all local difficulties, which for a time would be serious obstacles to a 
new man, are reduced to a minimum; but the different opinions 
advanced regarding the cooking and handling of salmon in a cannery 
are necessarily the result of individual experience in different regions. 
Cooling.—As soon as a retort is emptied of cans it is filled with a 
fresh supply from the bath, and when the cannery is operated at its 
full capacity the bathroom men are kept very busily employed. On 
coming from the second retort the coolers and contents are lowered 
into a bath of lye, which removes from the cans all grease and other 
material. <A slight rinsing and a few rubs with a brush over the top 
