MAINE SARDINE INDUSTRY. 59 
Several photographs illustrating the appearance of the contents of 
cans when packed with varying degrees of care and skill were taken. 
The cans of sardines from which these photographs were made were 
obtained at random from different canneries. While the illustrations 
of the better appearing packs must not be regarded as representative 
of the best packing to be found in the Maine sardine industry, they 
indicate the kind of packing that should be demanded in the ‘‘stand- 
ard”’ grade of Maine sardines. 
Figure 1, Plate XVI, shows two cans of well packed sardines, 
brights up, contrasted with poorly packed: cans that were packed 
backs up. Carelessness in the packing process was responsible for 
the inferior appearance of the unattractive can. , The cans in figure 2 
were well packed, but the fish had been roughly handled on the flakes, 
causing breaking of the skin and other damage. 
Plate XVII is fairly representative of well packed cans, contrasted 
with poorly packed cans. Figure 1 shows two cans packed the same 
day with fish from the same weir, but at different canneries. The 
cans were taken from the packing table before being oiled. The su- 
periority of the cans at the left was typical of the entire product 
of the cannery at that time, and did not represent any special 
degree of perfection in packing. Figure 2 shows the cans taken 
in the shipping room from the same lot as the well packed cans 
shown in figure 1 after they had been oiled, sealed, and sterilized. 
The disarrangement of the fish in the cans was caused by rough 
handling received by the cans during the processing and the sub- 
sequent handling. ‘The mussy appearance of the fish is due to the 
presence of particles from the gills of snipped fish and material 
from the stomach and intestines. Figure 3 depicts three cans from 
_ the lot of poorly packed goods shown in figure 1 after they had been 
taken from the shipping room. The complete disarrangement of this 
slack and poorly packed can is due to rough handling. One of the 
cans selected proved to be a 3-fish can, showing the lack of grading 
on the basis of the number of fish per can (p. 96). These sardines 
also illustrate the utter lack of standardization on a quality basis. 
The kind of goods that brings the Maine sardine into disrepute is 
shown in figure 2, Plate XIX. Practically all of the fish used for 
this pack were belly-broken, from the action of feed, and were literally 
thrown into the cans, with no effort to secure a neat appearance. 
The fault here is not entirely the packer’s, as there is no incentive 
to pack carefully when material of such inferior quality is permitted 
entry into the cannery. 
The conditions responsible for the quality of sardines, as repre- 
sented in these photographs, can be attributed to (a) lack of uniform- 
ity of opinion as to what shall constitute a fair quality of sardines, 
(6) lack of desire on the part of a few to produce any standard 
