438 
BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 
ROUND HERRING. 
The bulk of the herring salted on the New England coast are taken in the vessel 
gill-net lishery, and the fish are usually salted on board the vessels. Some are taken 
also by small boats making daily trips to the fishing-grounds, and these are necessarily 
salted on shore. The methods of salting the fish on the vessels and on shore differ 
only according to the facilities for handling them. 
In the vessel fishery, as the herring are removed from the nets they are placed on 
deck and water is soused over to remove loose scales, blood, etc., and sometimes salt 
is sprinkled over them. They are next placed in hogshead tubs with about 3 pecks 
of salt to the barrel of fish scattered among them, when they are covered with brine and 
left standing for four or five days, or until they are struck. It is important that the 
salting be done as soon as practicable after the fish are removed from the water, and 
in the meantime they should be protected from the sun. After being struck, the fish 
are repacked in market barrels, where they remain for twenty-four hours for settling, 
when the barrels are topped up by adding a few struck fish to each barrel. It requires 
about 330 salted fish to fill a barrel, the number of fresh herring required being about 
300. In packing the fish in the barrel, they are usually placed with backs slanting 
upward. Occasionally, however, those in the lower half of the barrel are placed back 
down, and sometimes a few upper and lower layers are carefully placed and the middle 
portions arranged with less care. After the barrel has been topped uii it is filled with 
brine, headed, and stored in the hold. On arrival at port, if it appears from sounding 
that some of the pickle has leaked out, more is added through a hole bored in the 
bilge and the hole plugged up, when the barrel is ready for branding and marketing. 
Sometimes at the port the fish are repacked, so as to insure full weight and good fish, 
new brine being made, if necessary, but if the old pickle is clear it is used over again. 
To determine the proper amount of salt required for curing herring requires 
considerable skill and experience, and the quantity varies according to the condition 
of the fish, the season of the year, etc. If too much salt be used the fish will soon 
become hard and dry, with greatly diminished tiavor, but if the quantity of salt be 
insufHcient the fish will become tainted and unfit for food within a short time. During 
warm weather more salt must be used than when the temperature is low, and thin 
small herring require less salt than thick or large ones. As a general rule, about 5 
pecks of salt are required for curing each barrel of herring. 
In pickling on shore, the fish on their arrival are dumped into tanks or wash 
barrels of sea water, from which they are at once removed with a brail net, the fish 
being rinsed up and down at the same time, and placed in a pickling butt or vat with 
about 3 pecks of salt scattered among each 200 pounds of fish and a heap placed 
on top. In two or three days a workman with high rubber boots passes over the 
butts, treading on the heaps of fish to separate them if massed together. Or, in 
some localities, the masses are separated by stirring them with a spudger, consisting 
of a thick board 10 inches long and 2 or 3 inches wide, nailed in the center to a wooden 
handle. The fish remain in the butts eight or ten days, being examined occasionally 
and more salt being added to keep the pickle sweet. After being thoroughly struck, 
the fish are removed with dip nets and j)laced on a packing table, whence they are 
jiacked in the market barrels, 200 pounds to each barrel, sometimes with backs up and 
sometimes with bellies up, according to market demands, about half a bushel of salt 
being scattered among them during the process of packing. The barrels are then 
