446 
BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 
less than three-eighths of an inch in thickness. In Norway the staves, as a rule, are made five-eighths 
inch thick, and the barrels are mostly made by machinery. Scotch barrels are generally full banded 
for export to hot climates in the summer time. They are also furnished with an iron hoop on each end. 
The Dutch barrels are furnished with 18 to 20 hoops, divided 5 or 6 on each end and 4 on each side of 
the middle, while the Norwegians have only 12 to 16, divided 3 and 3 or 4 and 4. 
In Norway a movement has been made lately to get a law according to which all barrels for 
shipment of herring should be manufactured of a certain kind of wood and of certain dimensions, but, 
so far as I am aware, such act has not been passed yet. If the barrels are made of fat spruce or red 
pine, and .also of oak, the herring will take a flavor from the barrels, which some people like very 
much, but others, .again, do not care for. In Soothand it was prohibited to salt herring in barrels 
manufactured of red pine until the year 1874, and for many years back a similar act or law existed in 
Norway; but this law avas repealed again on account of the Eussians, who consumed large quantities 
of salted herring, and valued the Norway cure very much on account of the resinous taste the herring 
got from the red pine barrels. Some people, again, value the Dutch herring very much on account of 
the taste or flavor they receive from the barrels. To keep the barrels from shrinking, it is recommended 
to put a little pickle in them while they are kept in stock. 
In 1889 the government of the Dominion of Canada appointed delegates to visit 
Seotland and the Netherlands for the purpose of studying their methods of curing 
herring. After making a careful investigation they summed up their conclusions in 
part as follows : 
We consider the Scotcli system of tre.ating herring, as an article of commerce, to be as perfect 
as any system can be when honestly carried out in all its integrity, .and th.at improvements in the 
herring industry of Canada can safely be made after the Scotch model, so far as our somewhat different 
circumstances may permit. In one most import.ant respect the Scotch fishermen have an immense 
advantage over the Canadian fisherman, and that is in having all the curing and packing of herrings 
performed by a distinct and independent class of merchants known as fish-curers. We have seen that 
the herring industry of Scotland never amounted to anything — never prospered — until an enterprising 
and energetic body of men came forward and assumed the position of fish-curers, taking that part 
of the business entirely out of the hands of the fishermen, to the great relief of the latter, and the 
promotion of this important business. In order, therefore, to place this industry in Canada upon a 
satisfactory and permanent basis we are of opinion — • 
(1) That while some slight degree of improvement in the details of curing and packing herrings 
may be at once attained by changes in the present methods, yet no real permjinent improvement ean 
take place, nor can the herring industry in Canada be placed upon a satisfactory commercial basis 
until the fisherman ceases to be his own fish-cnrer, and until the business of curing is taken in hand 
by a class of merchant fish-curers, as in Scotland — men of energy, business exjierience, and capital, 
with all the necessary appliances to carry on the business on fixed principles and in accordance with 
such regul.ations as may be promulgated for the benefit of the trade from time to time. In Seotland 
nearly all the curers devote their whole time to the supervision of their own curing operations. In 
former times if a fish-curer did not so superintend his own curing business he made arrangements 
with a master cooper to furnish the barrels, and generally to superintend the cure and putting up, 
guaranteeing that the same would pass the Crown brand; or he hired journeymen coopers and a 
foreman, laid in materials for the manufacture of barrels, and the foreman attended to the curing for 
the market. This was the method to a great extent in Scotland 55 years ago, and to some extent still. 
When a fisherman cures his own fish, it is done with the least possible labor and cost, and once they 
jiass into the hands of the merchiint or trader, paying up so much of his indebtedness to the former, he 
feels no more interest in the matter. But it is different with the merchant or curer; his capital, his 
credit, and his good name are at stake, and unless his fish are properly cured he will be the loser. 
Thus the strongest of all motives, self-interest, would induce him to cure and put up for market an 
.article calcul.ated to render a return for his outlay. 
(3) The barrel . — That the present Canadian barrel, being too weak to stand the rough handling 
to which it is exposed on the railways in transportation, should be greatly improved. We think the 
present capacity of the barrel should be retained; that it should contain not less than 200 pounds of 
