6 BULLETIN 908, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
The quantity of oil in the can is a very important factor in con- 
tributing to the food value of the sardine when it is eaten. A well- 
packed can containing an adequate amount of edible oil yields a 
large amount of food-fuel, and, in the form of the fish flesh, a good 
quantity of tiss sue-building food. 
PURPOSE OF INVESTIGATION. 
A few years before undertaking the investigation herein reported, 
the Bureau of Chemis try, of the United States Department of Agricul- 
ture, made several studies of sardines shipped in interstate commerce 
from Maine, in connection with the enforcement of the Federal Food 
and Drugs Act. The bureau had already acquired some experience in 
such work, through its study of sardines offered for importation into 
the United States. These investigations of Maine sardines showed 
that a certain portion of the pack was of unnecessarily inferior quality. 
Indeed, in some cases it constituted a flagrant violation of the law. 
It seemed probable that very often the low-quality goods were pro- 
duced through faulty methods of handling and packing. due to careless- 
ness, rather than fo a deliberate effort to defraud the consumer. This 
condition seemed to offer an opportunity to render the packer a real 
service in assisting him to raise the standard of his output by em- 
ploying better methods throughout the canning process, and at the 
same time to benefit the community as a whole by improving an 
important element of the country’s food supply. 
Accordingly, in 1913, a laboratory was established at Eastport, 
Me.. where, during that season, as well as those of 1914 and 1916, 
the representatives of the Department of Agriculture, ably assisted 
by the packers, studied the entire process of packmg sardines. The 
success of this undertaking is already evident in the steady better- 
ment of factory conditions, in the adoption of methods making for 
efficient operation, and in the increased care shown in handling the 
pack from the time the fish leave the water until the can is sent out 
from the factory. The majority of the canners have banded them- 
selves together in an association for the betterment of the industry, 
exercising its own sanitary supervision over the canning processes 
in the planis of its members. It is hoped that the industry will be 
helped by the information contaimed im this bulletm, which gives 
a report of the investigations on the canning of sardines on the coast 
of Maine, with suggestions for improving faulty methods, for the 
elimination of all unnecessary waste, and for the economical utiliza- 
tion of the necessary wastes. 
METHODS EMPLOYED IN PACKING SARDINES. 
The various steps in the production of canned sardimes may be 
classified as follows: (a) Catching the fish; (6) transportation of the 
fish from the fishing grounds to the cannery; (ec) pickling and saltimg; 
