430 
BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 
“Mass.,” aucl the year in whicE tlie lisli are packed; and skall also, when in his judgment it may he 
necessary, nail in a suitable manner any cask in which fish are packed. Pickled fish duly inspected 
in the State or country in which it is packed shall not he subject to reiuspection in this State. 
Small fish, which are usually packed whole with dry salt or pickle, shall be put in good casks of 
the size and materials required in this chapter for the packing of split pickled fish, and shall be packed 
close in the cask and well salted. The casks shall befilled full with the fish and salt, and no more salt 
shall be put with the fish than is necessary for their preservation, and the casks containing such whole 
fish shall be branded with the denomination of the fish, and a like designation of the qualities as is 
before described in this chapter in respect to the qualities of other pickled fish. 
Ill Ehode Island provision is made for the election annually of one or more packers 
of fish in each town, who shall see that all fish packed in the State are properly 
pickled and repacked in casks in good shipping order, with good salt, sufficient in 
each cask to preserve such fish from damage, to any foreign iiort. Other provisions of 
the law are as follows : 
Pickled fish, whether codfish, mackerel, menhaden, herrings, or other fish, shall be sorted and 
one kind only be put into one cask. 
Every cask shall be well seasoned and bound with 12 hoops; those of menhaden and herrings of 
the capacity to hold 28 gallons, and those for other fish of the capacity, if a barrel, to hold 200 pounds, 
and if a half-barrel, 100 pounds weight of fish ; each cask to be full, and the fish sound and well cured. 
Every cask being first searched, examined, and approved by a packer shall, when packed or 
repacked for exportation, be branded legibly on one head with the kind of fish it contains and the 
weight thereof; or the capacity of the cask, with the first letter of the Christian and the whole of 
the surname of the packer, with the name of the town, and with the words “Rhode Island” in letters 
not less than three-fourths of an inch long, to denote that the same is merchantable and in good 
order for exportation. 
Every cask of pickled codfish and mackerel oft’ered for sale or for exportation from this State 
shall also lie branded “No. 1,” “No. 2,” or “No. 3,” to denote the quality of such fish. 
Nothing in this chapter contained shall hinder any fisherman or owners of fish coming to this 
State from their fishing trips from selling or reshipping their fish to any other of the United States 
without being packed into barrels or half-barrels. 
Connecticut regulations for tlie inspection of pickled fisli relate especially to the 
curing of sliad, and since none of tliose flsli are now pickled in that State except for 
home consumption the regulations are inoperative. The pickled-fish inspection laws 
of other States are either inoperative or they relate to certain species, and will be 
noted in the account of the methods of preserving those particular products. 
BRINE-SALTED MACKEREL. 
In the preparation of few marine products in this country are such, nice distinctions 
made as in pickling or brine-salting mackerel. Not only has the work been reduced 
almost to a science by the fishermen and dealers, but it has been surrounded with a 
mass of legislation qualifying the manner of preparation almost without a parallel in 
the preservation of food products. Mackerel salting in the United States is confined 
almost entirely to Massachusetts and Maine, and four-fifths of the product is prepared in 
the first-named State, Gloucester aiul Boston being the principal centers of the trade. 
A few barrels are prepared also in New Hampshire, Ehode Island, and Connecticut. 
The pickling of mackerel was of but little extent prior to the beginning of the 
present century, the annual product ou the entire coast previous to 181G rarely 
exceeding 15,000 barrels. The first salt-mackerel trip from Gloucester is said to have 
been made by the schooner President to Cashes Ledge, in the Gulf of Maine, about 1819. 
From that time to 1831 the industry rapidly increased, the output of Maine, New 
Hampshire, and Massachusetts during the last-named year reaching 449,950 barrels. 
