PRESERVATION OF FISHERY PRODUCTS FOR FOOD. 
431 
the largest product in the history of the fisheiy. The value of the yield during that 
year was $1,862,793, while the value of the 324,454 barrels packed in those States in 
1804 reached $7,001,098. In 1881 the yield was 391,657 barrels, with a reported valu- 
ation of $2,447,550. The increasing demand for fresh lish in this country has affected 
the trade in salt mackerel, a much smaller proportion of the catch being salted during 
recent years than formerly. Of the 131,939,255 pounds of mackerel taken in the 
United States fisheries in 1880, 80 per cent was salted, whereas during very recent 
years the salted mackerel represents less than half of the total yield. The quantity 
of these fish caught has also decreased greatly, so that at present the trade in salt 
mackerel is very much less than it was fifteen years ago. In 1887 the domestic product 
was 93,582 barrels, valued at $1,064,124; in 1890 it decreased to 20,742 barrels, worth 
$306,731; while in 1892 it numbered 46,946 barrels, worth $011,486. The yield was 
24,939 barrels in 1895, 77,464 barrels in 1896, 13,154 barrels in 1897, and 14,286 barrels 
in 1898, less than 5 per cent of the annual average during the 40 years preceding 1886. 
During the last thirty years quantities of salted mackerel have been prepared in 
the British North American Provinces, the annual product during the past three or 
four years averaging about 25,000 barrels. The mackerel taken on the coasts of 
Europe are generally sold fresh, but in Ireland, Norway, England, and Scotland many 
barrels are salted each year, especially in Ireland. Of the 399,361 barrels taken in 
those four countries in 1895, 40,500 barrels were salted, nearly all of which found a 
market in America. In 1897 the European product of salt mackerel was 57,352 
barrels, and in 1898 it approximated 50,000 barrels. The European method of salting 
mackerel was until recently considered somewhat inferior to that in vogue in the 
United States, differing from the American method principally in that the fish were 
split down the belly instead of down the back, they were not soaked to remove the 
blood, and in packing in the barrel they were placed face up. The packers, however, 
have rectified these mistakes and the foreign mackerel are at present more carefully 
prepared than formerly, and those received in this country from Ireland and Norway 
now compare very favorably with the domestic jjroduct. 
The domestic mackerel that find their way into the salt-fish trade are taken 
principally in purse-seines, most of those caught by means of lines, gill nets, pound- 
nets, etc., being marketed fresh. When salted, however, they are prepared in the 
same mauimr as those taken in purse seines, except that, the yield being usually much 
less in quantity, facilities for handling the fish rapidly are not of so great imi^ortance. 
Mackerel taken by seines or gill nets do not usually keep so well when salted as 
those taken by lines, as the latter are taken in smaller quantities and greater care 
can be used in handling them, and they may be readily salted before deterioration 
begins and very shortly after being removed from the water. 
The methods of salting as here given relate especially to fish taken by purse seines. 
When the fish are removed from the seine by means of a large dip net they are 
thrown on deck; or, if the catch be large, they are placed in a “pocket” or “spiller,” 
rigged along the side of the vessel, where they can be kept alive until the crew have 
time to dress and salt them. So many fish are sometimes taken at a single haul that 
if at once removed to the deck many w'ould spoil before the fishurmeii could properly 
care for them, and the purpose of the i)ocket is to provide a receptacle in which fish 
may be kept alive for several hours. This pocket was introduced in 1877 in a sim])le 
form on the schooner Alice, of Swan Island. An improved form was invented by H. E. 
Willard, of Portland, Me., and patented in April, 1881, but valuable improvements and 
