REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF FISHERIES. 161 
The old method of laequering was to dip each can separately by 
hand, but the process was slow as compared with the present method. 
A number of long boxes, each containing about a half-barrel of lac- 
quer, with racks arranged on the side for drying cans, composed the 
entire apparatus. 
The lacquering machine is among the most recent improvements 
introduced in canneries, but it has not been adopted to a very con- 
siderable extent. By its means, however, it is possible to lacquer the 
pack made each day, thereby saving much time at the end of the season. 
The work of labeling the cans comes next. Machines have been 
invented to do this work, but for the most part it is done by hand, 
and in the following manner: From 8 to 10 men are seated in front of 
the row of cans, about 4 feet apart. Each man has in front of hima 
bunch of several hundred labels, and by bunching them on a slant, so 
that a small margin of the bottom one protrudes beyond the one above 
it, he can apply paste to the entire number with one stroke of the 
brush. A can is placed in the center of the label, is quickly rolled, 
and the label is on. The skill displayed by many of the men and 
women engaged in this work is remarkable. Each man places to his 
right the cans he labels, forming a pile of length and width equal to 
his unlabeled pile. When the entire lot has been labeled it has been 
shifted only about 4 feet. On the Columbia River and in the Puget 
Sound region where the canneries put up fancy brands of salmon, 
most of the cans are wrapped in colored tissue paper before being 
labeled. 
Tt should be stated that while the labeling is going on the cans are ~ 
receiving another test. Each row is gone over as on previous ccca- 
sions—that is, the cans are tapped with a small piece of iron—and even 
at this stage an occasional faulty cin isfound. These, however, had not 
been overlooked in former tests, but defects which before were too 
small for observation have since developed. 
Brands of salmon.—Each cannery puts up several brands of salmon— 
some a dozen or more. There are a number of reasons for this, one 
being that there is more than one quality of salmon packed from a 
single species; fish packed within twenty-four or thirty-six hours after 
being caught are superior to those that lie on the wharf or in boats 
four or five days. It is sometimes impossible to pack fish soon after 
their arrival at the cannery, and in some cases they are much older 
than they should be when put into the cans. Another reason is in the 
demand in different parts of the country and abroad. Even one lot of 
fish, packed in the same way, may be split into two or more brands, 
which are equally good. <A certain brand of salmon with an estab- 
lished reputation is sought by merchants in certain localities to the 
extent of several thousand eases, and 30,000 or 40,000 cases of the 
same brand in another part of the country. No other brand will sell 
F. C. 1904—11 
