MAINE SARDINE INDUSTRY. 99 
marred and broken; consequently great care must be exercised to 
obtain a neat looking can. 
To rule that all broken fat fish should be discarded would result in a 
creat waste of good, wholesome food material. Some means should be 
provided for using the broken and marred fat fish, other than mixing 
them with, and spoiling the appearance of, packs made from undam- 
aged fish. These fish should not be mixed with the undamaged fish, 
but may be utilized legitimately by packing them as mustard sardines 
or “backs up” in oil, with the understanding that this method of 
packing designates seconds or broken and marred fish. 
In packing the better or fancy grade of sardines unbroken fat fish 
of superior quality are to be preferred. It would be desirable to 
select the better quality of fish, whenever they can be obtained, for 
packing the fancy grade of sardines and use the poorer quality of fish 
in the cheaper sardines. 
The Norwegian sardine packers recognize the value of fish of good 
quality, and pack the better grades of sardines at a season when the 
fish are the fattest, and consequently of the best value. 
CUTTING AND EVISCERATING THE FISH. 
All fish used in the preparation of sardines should be cut and evis- 
cerated. Under present conditions it would be impossible to cut all 
the fish. The employees are decidedly averse to hand cutting, and it 
would be impossible to secure a sufficient force to cut all the fish 
during a heavy run. Several of the canneries, however, have suc- 
ceeded with hand labor in cutting fish of a certain size, while a few 
cut most of the large fish used for mustard sardines. Since this 
investigation was undertaken much progress has been made in the 
development of mechanical devices for doing this work. Several 
canneries now use mechanical means for beheading the fish. It is 
hoped that eventually all fish will be cut and eviscerated by machinery. 
It is most desirable that fish be eviscerated as well as beheaded 
before starting them through the canning process. Experiments have 
shown that the viscera and contents are responsible for the early and 
rapid spoiling of the fish. Not only does cutting and eviscerating 
prevent such decomposition, but it also facilitates matters all along the 
line in the packing of sardines. It will abolish the practice of ‘‘snip- 
ping” and “‘shearing’’ the fish during packing and will practically 
eliminate the handling of the large amount of refuse in the packing 
room. It shortens the length of time in pickle after the fish reach the 
cannery, thus eliminating the damage and loss resulting when fish are 
held too long in salt and pickle. It reduces to a negligible degree 
the chemical changes which fish undergo in brine or pickle, causing the 
removal of a large part of the material which is characteristic of fresh 
fish and which is so largely responsible for the delicate flavor. It 
