When the fish is perfectly dry, they are packed in rectangular bales 

 of 50 to 100 kilos, bound with wire. 



Besides the cod consumed fresh or sold green- salted, as well as the 

 stockfish thus prepared in Norway, the rest of the product of the fishery, 

 by far the most important part, is delivered for consumption as klipfish. 



Like splitting and salting, drying of cod has a very long history. The 

 first fishermen who came to carry on their industry on the coast of New- 

 foundland at the beginning of the 16th century knew the technique perfectly. 

 The method has undergone numerous modifications and improvements. 



At Newfoundland for the fish processed by the shore fisheries, in 

 France for the green- salted cod brought back by the bank fishermen, at 

 first only flat drying was done, the fish being spread under the sun for this 

 operation, as on the Newfoundland beaches to receive the successive "sun- 

 nings. " 



In the French ports receiving green- salted cod, where the boats re- 

 turning from the banks unloaded at once their entire cargo of cod, flat 

 drying posed an enormous problem every year. At Saint-Malo, where the 

 space was restricted, they dried cod, in the 18th century, everywhere: on 

 the beach, in the parks, and even on the stones in the cemetery! 



The boats going to fish the Newfoundland coast becoming more and 

 more numerous, there were not sufficient number of good drying places 

 for everyone. They were forced to utilize the sandy beaches, or even 

 muddy shores, little suited to drying cod. The fishermen then installed, 

 2 or 3 feet above the ground, wooden racks of sapling. On these the cod 

 were laid for drying. Sometimes these racks were replaced by frames on 

 which old netting was stretched. These were usually inclined in such a 

 way the cod did not receive the full rays of the sun. At Saint -Pierre and 

 Miquelon, the cod were treated in the same way as on the coast of New- 

 foundland. 



In France, drying in open air was subject to many improvements, the 

 principle one, during the 19th century, being vertical instead of flat drying, 

 the cod being hung by the tail on rods supported by wooden horses. This 

 procedure had several advantages. 



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