THE SALMON AND SALMON FISHERIES OF ALASKA. 
33 
PRICES OF CANNED SALMON. 
The prices vary with the demand. On account of the large output in 1897 canned 
salmon that year sold very low. A good average price for the 1896 output was, for 
king salmon, $1.15; redfish, 90 cents; cohoes, 80 cents, and humpbacks, 65 cents per 
dozen cans. The prices paid during the winter of 1897-98 were, king, $1.10; redfish, 
85 cents; cohoes, 75 cents, and humpbacks, 55 cents per dozen. These are simply 
averages from first hands in large quantities. One large organization, it is reported, 
sold 300,000 cases of the best redfish on foreign order, before the pack was made, at 
83 cents per dozen. The other grades are sold for what they will bring. 
CANS AND BOXES. 
It is difficult, without seeing, to appreciate tlie enormous number of cans used 
in a cannery. From the time of the arrival of the employees at the cannery, six or 
eight weeks before the salmon run commences, the Chinese who do the iiacking are 
employed in making cans, as their contract calls for the packing work complete, from 
the making of the cans to the stowing of the labeled, filled cans into the cases.* The 
body of nearly all cans is made by hand, but there are a few machines in use that 
solder the long body seams. In nearly, if not (luite, all the canneries, after the cans 
are filled the bottoms and tops are soldered by machinery. To pack 50,000 cases 
requires 2,400,000 cans, and the Alaska pack in 1897 took about 43,600,000 cans. 
This requires about 100,000 boxes of tin plate, weighing 10,000,000 pounds (5,000 tons 
roughly) and costing about $400,000. The tin plate used at present is Avhat is known 
as 100-pound tin for the body of the can, and 95-pouud tin for the tops. It takes 
about 110 boxes of tin plate for 1,000 cases. Domestic tin is largely used for the pack 
sold for home use, but imported tin for the export pack. Formerly all tin plate was 
imported, and what is known in the trade as 110-pound and 112-i)ouud tin was used. 
One box of 100-pound tin, 14 inches by 20 inches, English plate, contains 112 
sheets of tin plate, weighing 100 pounds, or with the box 5 x)ouuds additional. One 
box of 95-i)ound tin of the same dimensions contains 112 sheets of tin plate, weighing 
95 j)ounds net, or with the box 5 pounds additional. The quotations in December, 
1897, in San Francisco, on lots of 500 boxes or more, duty paid, were $4.20 per box for 
100-pound tin and $4.10 for 95-pouud tin. American plate is the same except in price, 
which at the time the imported tin quotations were made was for 100-pound tin $3,425, 
and for 95-pound tin 10 cents less per box, delivered f. o. b. San Francisco in large lots. 
One-fourth of 1 per cent is said by dealers to cover all deterioration due to rusting, 
sweating, etc. 
For the season’s pack it is usual to allow 110 boxes of tin to 1,000 cases of cans. 
This makes an allowance of 2^ to 3 per cent for rusty plates, losses due to imperfectly 
cut sheets, and for other cannery uses, as the following will show : One sheet 14 inches 
by 20 inches will cut 6 bodies or 24 tops of 1-pouud tall cans; 1,000 cases, or 48,000 
cans, contain 96,000 tops (4,000 sheets) plus 48,000 bodies (8,000 sheets) equal to 12,000 
sheets, which is 107| boxes, or 107 boxes and 16 sheets. Hence 112 sheets, 14 inches 
by 20 inches, will make 448 tall 1-pound salmon cans, or 1 box of tin plate will make 
9^ cases of cans. In canneries generally it is said that actual experience shows that 
* III Bering Sea packing commences soon after the ice permits the vessels to enter the estuaries. 
As a rule, empty cans are carried from San Francisco to these canneries. 
