60 BULLETIN 98, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
quality, and (c) a lack of control over the employees. Sardines of 
the poorest quality are packed in canneries where the methods are 
inefficient and haphazard, and where very little, if any, supervision 
is exercised over the labor. 
RovucH TREATMENT. 
At several points in the handling of fish preparatory to packing 
the fish receive too rough treatment. For instance, they may be 
scooped from the boats after having settled in a solid mass, whereas 
the best practice is to float them well in the hold of the boats before 
bailmg them out. Another source of damage is the pulling and 
mauling the fish receive while on the flakes, particularly when too 
thickly flaked. 
After the fish are packed in the cans the rough treatment the cans 
and contents receive has a direct bearig on the final appearance of 
the sardines. In many cases it was found that the operators in 
placing the cans upon the tail of the sealing machine inserted their 
fingers in the packed cans, thus disarranging and marring the con- 
tents. Sometimes a few cans become crushed, or some trouble with 
the sealing machine causes spilling. The fish thus lost are repacked, 
at the close of the day’s sealing, constituting an inferior product 
because of the careless manner in which the sealer, unskilled in pack- 
ing, does the work. Other commonly found instances of rough treat- 
ment are: 
Permitting the cans to fall a distance of from 2 to 3 feet from the 
sealing machine after the covers have been attached. 
The bailing of cans from the “bath” tanks with scoopnets and 
forcibly throwing the cans on the floor of the cannery. 
Shoveling the cans over in drying and cleaning them with sawdust. 
Tumbling and rattling the cans through revolving sawdust cleaners. 
Shoveling and rolling the cans down too sharply inclined chutes to 
the shipping rooms. | 
Such treatment not only disarranges the fish within a well-packed 
can, but it may dent the seams of the cans, causing leaks. 
Those packers who maintain a definite quality and who take pains 
to pack the fish neatly and attractively in the cans clean the exterior 
of the cans, before shipping, in a careful manner to prevent dis- 
arrangement of the contents. 
ADDING THE OIL. 
QUANTITY OF OIL PER CASE. 
A series of experiments were conducted on fish of different fat 
contents, packed in oil at the rate of 1 quart, 14, 2, 24, 3, 34, and 4 
quarts per case of 100 cans. Four packs were prepared in quarter 
oil size key cans. Fish of uniform size were selected from the flakes 
