444 
BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES PISH COMMISSION. 
off the coast for their herring and can not get them in salt before they reach the shore, which often 
takes a long time. They have an advantage over the Dutch, because, although they salt their 
herring on hoard of their vessels soon after they are caught, still they may have been dead several 
hours in the nets before they are hauled on board, and at all events none of the herring taken in 
drift-nets or other nets can be deprived fully of the injurious food they may contain, as they can 
when barred in a seine. When brought to the shore or salting places from the seine the herrings 
are gibbed in this way: That a triangular piece of the throat, large enough to admit the heart and 
the pectoral fins to be removed, is cut out by means of scissors made for that purpose, or by a small 
knife (some also use the fingers). This cut should be made deep enough to divide the large blood 
veins, situated close to the neck bone, in order to remove the blood they contain. Sometimes, also, 
the gills are removed, especially on the full herring caught in the spring. 
Generally a large enough crew is emiffoyed to admit the gibbing and the salting to take place at 
the one time. On account of the herring caught in seines being always mixed, every gibber has got 
placed before him or her so many barrels or tubs as the herring are to be sorted in (from three to live) ; 
and, according as they are gibbed, every herring is also at the same time, by the gibber, sorted and 
placed in the various barrels or tubs to which they belong. The salter then takes the herring and 
packs them in new barrels, which lately have been soaked in sea water, slantwise on their back, with 
one-fourth barrel of St. Ybes salt to 1 barrel of herring. The herring are packed loosely, one lies 
across the other the whole barrel through. The uppermost layers are packed sometimes slantwise 
back up. Some packers put from to 2 gallons of pickle (made of one-fourth barrel of salt to 1 
barrel of sea water) on the herring soon after it is salted, and head up the barrels immediately. 
Others, again, let the barrels remain unheaded for one day before they fill them with pickle. Before 
the barrels are headed up a layer or two of herring are generally put into the barrels in order to fill 
up the empty room caused by the shrinking of the herrings. By putting the pickle on the herring 
soon after they are packed the salt dissolves quicker and saturates the herring more speedily, so that 
the contents of the stomach (provided the food is liberated) hardly has any injurious effects upon 
the durability of the herring. After the barrels are headed up they are broached in the head and 
blown into by means of a brass pipe containing a valve, which is put down in the hole, and, if found 
tight, the hole is plugged up as soon as the air has escaped; if not, they are made tight in the places 
where they are leaky, and blown over again before they are stowed down on board the vessels. 
After reaching the port of shipment and before being exported the herring are repacked and the 
barrels filled with the original pickle which was formed first; and if this does not hold out, new 
pickle is made to supply what is wanting. As a rule the herring are repacked in such a way that out 
of 4 barrels salted in the fishing-places from .SJ to 3^ barrels of herring are obtained when packed for 
shipment. They never, as a rule, pack their herring as light as the Scotch or Dutch do, except the 
herring is specially to be put up in such style. 
The followiug' uotes on pickling- herring are from Nielsen’s Eeport on the Cure 
of Herring: 
Qualities of the good --Concerning the nature of the fresh herring, it is required, in order 
to obtain a good article, that the herring also possess certain qualifications, such as sufficient size and 
maturity, lleshiness, and fatness. A lean, dry, dismembered or half-rotten herring can never give a 
good article, even if it is cured ever so well. A small herring, which has not reached the full state 
of maturity, fetches only small prices in the markets. Of much importance is also the development 
of the sexual organs. If these are in a far advanced state, the herring loses in fatness and flavor. 
These should be firm and the whole fiesh penetrated with a certain quantity of fat. Large amounts 
of fat around the blind-gut is a sign of the herring being fat right through the flesh. As a rule, 
ocean herring (such herring as pass most of the time in the ocean, and only approach the coast for 
reproductive jiurposes) are considered superior to the herring that keep themselves close to the coast 
or in the bays all the time. Of these herring, again, those which are caught in deep water are better 
than those caught in shoal water. A first-class herring is known by its small head, short and plump 
body; is broad across the back, and plump toward the tail, and has got a great depth from the back 
to the abdomen, which gives this well-rounded shape. 
Importance of early salting . — In order to obtain a good article of salt-cured herring it is necessary 
that the herring be liberated from its food and put in salt as soon as possible after being brought out 
from the water. Even if the quality is ever so fine, a good article can never be had if it is not 
l)roperly treated during the whole cure. The Scotch herring can not get the official crown brand 
