MAINE SARDINE INDUSTRY. 95 



marred and broken; consequently great care must be exercised to 

 obtain a neat looking can. 



To rule that all broken fat fish should be discarded would result in a 

 great waste of good, wholesome food material. Some means should be 

 provided for using the broken and marred fat fish, other than mixing 

 them with, and spoiling the appearance of, packs made from undam- 

 aged fish. These fish should not be mixed with the undamaged fish, 

 but may be utilized legitimately by packing them as mustard sardines 

 or "backs up" in oil, with the understanding that this method of 

 packing designates seconds or broken and marred fish. 



In packing the better or fancy grade of sardines unbroken fat fish 

 of superior quality are to be preferred. It would be desirable to 

 select the better quality of fish, whenever they can be obtained, for 

 packing the fancy grade of sardines and use the poorer quality of fish 

 in the cheaper sardines. 



The Norwegian sardine packers recognize the value of fish of good 

 quality, and pack the better. grades of sardines at a season when the 

 fish are the fattest, and consequently of the best value. 



CUTTING AND EVISCERATING THE FISH. 



All fish used in the preparation of sardines should be cut and evis- 

 cerated. Under present conditions it would be impossible to cut all 

 the fish. The employees are decidedly averse to hand cutting, and it 

 would be impossible to secure a sufficient force to cut all the fish 

 during a heavy run. Several of the canneries, however, have suc- 

 ceeded with hand labor in cutting fish of a certain size, while a few 

 cut most of the large fish used for mustard sardines. Since this 

 investigation was undertaken much progress has been made in the 

 development .of mechanical devices for doing this work. Several 

 canneries now use mechanical means for beheading the fish. It is 

 hoped that eventually all fish will be cut and eviscerated by machinery. 



It is most desirable that fish be eviscerated as well as beheaded 

 before starting them through the canning process. Experiments have 

 shown that the viscera and contents are responsible for the early and 

 rapid spoiling of the fish. Xot only does cutting and eviscerating 

 prevent such decomposition, but it also facilitates matters all along the 

 line in the pack in g of sardines. It will abolish the practice of "snip- 

 ping" and "shearing" the fish during packing and will practically 

 eliminate the handling of the large amount of refuse in the packing 

 room. It shortens the length of time in pickle after the fish reach the 

 cannery, thus el im inating the damage and loss resulting when fish are 

 held too long in salt and pickle. It reduces to a negligible degree 

 the chemical changes which fish undergo in brine or pickle, causing the 

 removal of a large part of the material which is characteristic of fresh 

 fish and which is so largely responsible for the delicate flavor. It 



