434 HISTORY AND METHODS OF THE FISHERIES. 
salting should be carefully done. As soon as the boats reach the harbor—and as the fishing is 
appointed to be carried on after sunset they arrive very early in the morning—the various crews 
commence to carry their fish to the reception-troughs of the curers by whom they have been en- 
gaged. A person in the interest of the curer checks the number of crans brought in, and sprinkles 
the fish from time to time with considerable quantities of salt. As soon as a score or two of baskets 
have been emptied, the gutters set carnestly to do their portion of the work, which is dirty and 
disagreeable in the extreme. The gutters usually work in companies of about five—one or two 
gutting, one or two carrying, and another packing. Basketfuls of the fish, as soon as they are 
gutted, are carried to the back of the yard and plunged into a large tub, there to be roused and 
mixed up with salt; then the adroit and active packer seizes a handful and arranges them with 
the greatest precision in a barrel, a handful of salt being thrown over each layer as it is put in, so 
that in the short space of a few minutes the large barrel is crammed full with many hundred fish, 
all gutted, roused, and packed, in a period of not more than ten minutes. As the fish settle down 
in the barrel, more are added from day to day till it is thoroughly full and ready for the brand. 
On the proper performance of these parts of the business the quality of the cured fish very much 
depends.” 
LAWS REGULATING HERRING CURE.—Many of the European countries have laws describing 
in detail the exact manner in which the herring shall be prepared, and great care is taken that 
the fish shall be properly cured in every particular. In America, on the contrary, little care is 
taken in the preparation of the fish, and though there are laws relating to the subject they refer 
more to the quantity of fish which a package of a given size shall contain, and to the amount 
of salt used in packing the fish, than to the quality of the fish. At one time the laws of all the 
States having extensive herring fisheries required that all of the pickled herring should be 
inspected before they were sent to market. A law to this effect is still in force in the States of 
Maine and New Hampshire. According to section 7, chapter II, of the Laws of Maine for 1875: 
“ Kvery inspector who inspects pickled alewives or herring, packed whole or round, shall see 
that they are struck with salt or pickle, and then put in good casks of the size and material 
aforesaid, packed closely therein and well salted, and the casks filled with fish and salt, putting 
no more salt with the fish than is necessary for their preservation; and the inspector shall brand 
all such casks with the name of the inspected fish as aforesaid, but in no case shall the inspector 
brand the casks unless the fish contained therein shall have been packed and prepared under his 
immediate supervision.” 
Section 8 of chapter XI of the Revised Statutes of Maine for 1871 gives the following 
description of the barrels in which fish are to be packed: 
“All tierces, barrels, or casks, used for the purpose of packing pickled fish, shall be made of 
sound, well seasoned white oak, white ash, spruce, pine, or chestnut staves of rift timber, with 
headings of either of such kinds of wood, sound, well planed, and seasoned, and the heads, if of 
pine, free from sap; the same to be well hooped with at least three strong hoops on each bilge, 
and three also on each chime; the barrel staves to be 28 inches in length, and the heads to be 17 
inches between the chimes, and made in a workmanlike manner to hold pickle, and branded on 
the side near the bung with the name of the maker or owner thereof. The tierces shall contain 
not less than 45 nor more than 46 gallons each, the barrels from 29 to 30 gallons each, and the 
aliquot parts of a barrel in the same proportion.” 
The laws of the State of Maine, as recently amended, do away with an inspector-general, but 
require the secretary of state to appoint deputy inspectors in the various fishing towns, these to 
receive their commission from him and to be obliged to report to him the quantity of fish inspected 
