PRESERVATION OF FISHERY PRODUCTS FOR FOOD. 
445 
except tliey are salted at least tweuty-four hours after being brought out from the sea. As a rule the 
curers do uot care about herring which is more than twenty-four hours out of the sea before they are 
landed, and only take those at a low figure. In Holland, even, a distinction is made between herring 
which are taken out first and those which are taken last from the nets. The cure of herring on 
board the fishing crafts commences, therefore, if circumstances allow, soon after the nets are hauled 
ill. To leave the herring exposed to the hot sun while being conveyed to the salting-place, or to leave 
the herring in the nets until the shore is reached, if the catch has taken place a long distance oft' the 
shore, is objectionable. An old law in Norway, of 1775, even prohibited people from taking such 
herring from their seines in the summer time before 10 o’clock in the evening and after 5 o’clock in 
the morning, if it was going to be salted for export. 
Best salt for herring . — In regard to what kind of salt is the most suitable for salting herring, it is 
difficult to give any one sort the preference. The choice of salt depends much upon how the herring 
is going to be cured, and upon the size and quality. The main thing is that the salt is clean, and that 
it is used in proper quantities. Fine and watery salt melts quicker, but gives weaker pickle. In 
cases where it is of importance to form pickle speedily, fine salt is jjreferable, while coarse salt is 
better for use in filling and repacking, or when the herring is intended for export to hot climate, or 
to be kept in stock for any length of time. The Scotch curers use Liverpool salt, the Dutch light 
Cadiz or Lisbon salt, while the Norwegians use St. Ybes salt. It is of much importance, as formerly 
stated, to put the herring in salt as quick as possible, if a first-class article shall be obtained. For 
this reason the Scotch, as the herring is landed, sprinkle it heavily with salt in bins or vessels made 
for that purpose, before it is gibbed and gutted. Generally they use 1 barrel of Lisbon or coarse 
Liverpool salt (or sometimes both mixed) to about 10 barrels of herring. By this means the herring 
keej) their scales better and brighter, and can also be handled better and quicker when they are 
afterwards gibbed and gutted. The Hollanders roll their herrings in trays filled with fine Liverpool 
or St. Ybes salt as soon as they are gibbed and gutted, before they jiack them in barrels; and this 
work is done very precisely. In Norway no sprinkling with salt, as a rule, is used before the 
herrings are gibbed or packed in barrels, but instead thereof they have to use more salt in j^acking 
than the Scotch and Dutch. The sprinkling of herring with salt as soon as they are landed or 
brought on board of the vessels is considered also to improve the flavor of them very much. 
Backing herring . — In packing the herring in barrels it is recommendable not to pack them too 
tight before they have shrunk lu the salt, and also to pack herring of the same size and quality right 
through the whole barrel. The packing is performed diti'ereutly amoug ditt’ereut nations. In Norway 
the herrings are packed slantwise on their back, while the Scotch and Hollanders pack them fully on 
their back. By this last mode (which no doubt is the best)' the herring get a more round and thick 
appearance in the pack; and it has also this advantage, that the pickle has got a better chance to get 
in aud saturate through the abdominal cavity of the gutted herring. After the herring has shrunk in 
the salt the barrels are filled uj) again aud put away, but care is taken that the herring is not packed 
too hard. As long as the barrels are left to remain still there is no need of hard packing, but when 
they are to bo shipped it is recommendable to repack the herring so tight that they do uot move about, 
even if the barrels are handled over so roughly, so that the receiver may be exempted from filling the 
barrels again after they have reached their place of destination. 
Herring barrels . — The quality of barrels used for salting herring in is of much importance in 
order to obtain a desirable product. If too soft wood is employed, the pickle will work through the 
staves, the herring become dry, and be damaged within a short time. Among the foliferous wood in 
Europe the populus (poplar) is considered least answerable, aud amoug the conifers the spruce or fir 
are less suitable than the red pine wood, because the former is generally knotty and more ready to get 
saturated with pickle or water. Good hard aud clean spruce, which is cut fresh and has uot been 
soaked in water, may compete with the pine when it gets properly seasoned. The Hollanders use 
mostly barrels made of oak; the Scotch use barrels of birch or beech, aud the Norwegians use barrels 
of spruce and red pine wood. Staves made of bircli are brittle and apt to twist. In Scotland the 
regulations for making herring barrels are that the staves shall be uot less than half an inch thick and 
uot wider than 6 inches, except the oak staves, which may be 7 inches wide, and that the bottoms should 
be at least of the same thickness as the staves, and none of the pieces of which it consists be made 
wider than 8 inches. The usual thickness of the staves in the Scotch herring barrels are from nine- 
sixteenths to ten-sixteenths of an inch, and the bottoms are generally made three-fourtbs of an inch 
thick. In Holland there was a law passed enacting that a herring barrel should be manufactured of 
at least 13 staves (which mcukes every stave on an average inch wide), aud that no stave should be 
