178 BULLETIN OP THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 
When the fish are oven-dried they need no further cooking before be- 
ing packed, but in other cases they are fried in oil at a temperature of 
260° Fahr., the oil being boiled either by direct furnace heat or by the 
passing of steam through coils of pipe in the frying tank. The Brook- 
lin Canning Company claims to have invented the process of frying by 
steam, which has many advantages over the old method of direct fur- 
nace heat. They produced the first successful apparatus for the pur- 
pose in 1884. Experiments had been made by other parties at an ear- 
lier date, but without satisfactory results. About a third of the fac- 
tories which fry their fish do so by means of steam, and, as is the case 
with other improved methods, the number is on the increase. 
It is doubtful whether the ovens will ever supplant entirely the fry- 
ing apparatus, for it is said that the fish which have been fried have a 
better flavor, and, having absorbed more oil, keep longer than the 
others. It is claimed, however, by those using ovens, that by the baking 
process very much depends upon the skill of the baker, and that, when 
at its best, it may produce results equal, if not superior, to those of the 
old system. It appears that the first fish fried in a given quantity of 
oil are better than the best baked fish, but that as it is necessary, in 
order to keep the expenses with in reasonable limits, to use the same 
oil for frying successively a great mauy pans of fish, the fluid soon 
becomes filled with scales and small particles of fish, which burn on the 
bottom and impart to the product a bitter and unpleasant taste. In 
baking, on the other hand, when it is properly done, the fish are all of 
a quality equally good. 
After coming from the frying-pans or the oven the fish go into the 
hands of the packers, who are almost invariably women or girls, by 
whom they are sorted and placed in the boxes, which are then filled with 
oil, or, in some cases, mustard or spices. A few years ago, although 
other oils were used in the frying, the sardines were packed in olive oil, 
either alone or mixed with inferior kinds ; but at present its use has 
been almost entirely superseded by cotton-seed and nut oils. This 
change is accounted for by the facts that the heavy duties make olive 
oil very expensive, that it will not keep as well as the cotton-seed oil, 
and that the latter can be made exceedingly palatable. Peanut oil, 
which is sometimes used, is said to be even better than the cotton-seed 
oil. The olive oil used in France for sardine packing is often largely 
adulterated with American cotton-seed oil, as well as with palm and 
other oils. 
When the herring are of the most desirable size they are packed with 
a dozen in each can 5 the number is never smaller than seven or eight. 
The making of the tin cans or boxes in which the products are packed 
is quite an important branch of the work at the cannery. Two sets of 
men are employed, the can- makers who manipulate the machines by 
which the tin is cut, bent, and stamped into the various shapes and 
sizes required, and the seamers, who, with a soldering-iron, join the ends 
