450 
BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 
If the Dutch and Germans can afford to pay freight and shipping charges on herrings from Scot- 
land to Holland and Germany, unpack and repack into small packages, ])ay freight and shipping 
charges to New York, and sell these herrings in Quehec and Ontario, with a good margin of profit, 
surely the herring traders of the Maritime Provinces should be able to supply herrings in this shape 
as good in quality, at lower prices, and with a better margin of jiroht. By supi^lying a proper article 
this branch of the trade can he increased immeasurably both in the United States — the Western States 
especially— and in the inland provinces of the Dominion. 
BRINE-SALTED ALEWIVES OR RIVER HERRING. 
At various points aloug the Atlantic coast more or less alewives or river herring 
are brine-salted each year. They are prepared in greatest abundance in the tribu- 
taries of Chesapeake Bay and the coastal waters of North Oaroliua, where they are 
known only as herring, and also to a less extent in Maine and Massachusetts. At 
the head of Chesapeake Bay 30,000 barrels of herring are brine-salted annually, the 
number of fish required for the pack approximating 20,000,000. It is not unusual for 
300 or 400 barrels of pickled herring to be prepared as the result of a single haul of a 
seine, and 900 barrels were salted from one haul in 1893. The Chesapeake product is 
used mostly in the South, and is distributed principally from Alexandria, Fredericks- 
burg, aud Bichmond. The alewives salted in New England are sold also through 
the South to some extent, but many of them are sent to the West Indies and South 
American countries. 
The methods of pickling river herring or alewives do not differ greatly from those 
applied to the sea herring on the New England coast, except that the market price 
being lower necessitates that they should be prepared in a cheaper manner. The 
flavor of the alewife does not equal that of the sea herring, consequently there is 
little need for the nice discrimination required in case of the latter. Usually more 
salt is used in preserving them than for sea herring, and as a result they will keep 
much longer. Mr. Joseph Farris, of Eastport, Me., states: 
The chief difference between the alewife and the herring in their capacity to keep for a long time 
is that the alewife has less flavor than the herring. It is almost without flavor. When the herring 
loses its flavor it becomes insipid and unpalatable, although it may be sound ; hut so long as the alewi fe 
is sound it is as suitable for food as at any time in its preserved condition. Alewives are sometimes 
kept on hand three years before being shipped, hut if herring are not shipped within one year after 
being cured they are usually turned out of the barrels and used for fertilizer. 
The three principal classes of jiickled alewives are, (1) “gross,” the entire fish 
being salted, corresponding to the round herring of the New England coast; (2) 
“split” or “cut,” the head and viscera having been removed before salting; (3) “roes,” 
the head being removed and the main gut drawn, but with the roe left in the fish. 
Each locality has its particular process of preparing the different grades. 
THE CHESAPEAKE PROCESS. 
The main object is to get the fish in salt as quickly as possible after they are 
removed from the water, but first the scales must be removed and the fish washed. 
In case the seine is hauled on a sandy beach the movements of the dying fish about 
the sand are sufficient for removing the scales. But when the seine is hauled on a 
float, sand is sprinkled among the fish, and a few workmen, with high rubber boots, 
shuffle about among them or they are drudged back aud forth by means of a board 
attached to a long handle. The fish are next washed or rather rinsed to remove 
