THE FRENCH SARDINE INDUSTRY. 
19 
older canneries the wire baskets are suspended from a wire lattice under which are 
small charcoal furnaces. 
From the drying flakes the fish are taken in the same wire baskets to the cooking 
room and immersed in boiling oil, in open vats of various sizes and construction. 
As the fish are quite dry, much of the oil is taken up in cooking and has to be 
replaced from time to time by fresh oil. The immersion in oil usually lasts about 
two minutes, but depends on the size of the fish and is best gaged by experience. 
When the caudal fin will break easily, the fish are said to be cooked enough. The 
baskets are then removed to a table or platform with an inclined metal top, where the 
surplus oil is allowed to drain from the fish. After a few minutes the baskets are 
taken to the packing room, where they are hung on wooden frames over metal-top 
tables for further draining and cooling. The oil which drips oft' here is in some 
places used in soap-making. 
The sardine manufacturers employ two kinds of oil in their canning operations — 
oiive oil and araehide or peanut oil; and small quantities of sesame oil have at times 
been used. While it is reported that the manufacturers knowingly handle only the 
oils named, it is understood that cottonseed oil, being tasteless and cheap, is used by 
the French oil-dealers for adulterating both olive and peanut oil. Information on 
this subject is naturally difficult to obtain; but the testimony of several oil-manu- 
facturers and dealers clearly indicates the existence of the practice. It is interesting 
to note, in this connection, that during the fiscal year 1899 the United States exported 
to France nearly 17,000,000 gallons of cotton-seed oil, having a value of $4,000,000. 
French olive oil is used with the best quality of canned sardines. Fish packed 
in it will remain in good condition ten years or longer, and are reported to be 
better the second year after packing than earlier. The cost of olive oil to the canners 
is from 175 to 300 francs ($35 to $60) per 100 kilograms. 
Araehide oil is extensively employed. It is made in Bordeaux, Fecamp, and 
Marseilles from peanuts imported from India, Senegal and other parts of Africa, 
and other countries. It comes in three grades and costs 65 to 95 francs per 100 
kilograms, the best quality being worth less than one-third that of the best olive oil. 
The mass remaining after the expression of the oil from the peanuts is made into 
cakes and used as food for cattle. The cakes are ground into flour and employed as 
bait in the sardine fishery. 
Peanut oil is largely used to meet the American demand for a low-priced sardine. 
Most of the cheaper French sardines exported to America are packed in peanut oil, 
which is practically tasteless. 
A canner may fry his sardines in peanut oil and fill the cans with olive oil, or vice 
versa; or one oil, with or without the admixture of cotton-seed oil, may be used 
throughout the process. 
The following account of the utilization of peanuts in France is quoted from the 
Philadelphia Manufacturer: 
Americans have come to look upon the peanut chiefly as an article of food, associating it with 
circuses and country fairs. Its employment for food purposes is, however, one of the least important 
of its uses. Although Europeans seldom eat the nuts, Marseilles is the peanut center of the world. In 
1899 that city imported 61,241 tons of unshelled and 9,579 tons of shelled peanuts, and that was not 
an unusual year. Bordeaux also uses large quantities every year, but the first-named city stands in 
Europe at the head of the production of vegetable oils from oleaginous seeds. The chief sources of 
