476 
BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 
foot beyond the front of the oven, and therefore forms an opening for the escape of the superfluous 
smoke. The oven is about 6 feet high, and grovrs narrower toward the top, which is about 1 foot in 
diameter. The chimney is held together by a strong iron bar. When the fish have been dried in the 
air, smoking may be done on all three irons, therefore in three rows. The lid at the top is then kept 
closed. If, however, the oven is to be used for drying, the two upper rows are used for this purpose, 
and in that case the lid must remain open, and the opening is covered by bags or pieces of board. 
Gradually, as the two lower rows have been smoked, the two upper ones are put a row farther down, 
and a new row is hung on the upper iron. 
A larger smokehouse in Svanike, on the island of Bornholm, is about 18 yards square and 4 yards 
high, while the chimney is 6 feet high and 4 feet broad. There are seven smoke rooms, or ovens, for 
hot-smoking, and one for cold-smoking. Tbe herring are huug in pairs over poles 3 feet long, one 
herring’s head being stuck through the gills of the other and coming out at the mouth. If necessary, 
a thin stick of wood serves as a skewer. On each pole about 40 herring can be hung, which must not 
touch each other. The poles are arranged crosswise over square frames, 3 feet broad and 7 feet long, 
which are run into the oven on ledges. Each frame contains 26 poles, and about 1,040 herring can be 
smoked in it at the same time. The entire smokehouse can contain 22,400 herring, which are smoked 
by the hot method. The lowest frame is about 3 feet above the fireplace. In the cold-smoke chimney 
about 12,000 herring can be smoked. 
A few smokehouses, which are devoted principally to smoking river herring or 
alewives, are constructed with the fire-box outside of the house containing the fish, to 
avoid heating or burning the fish and to more carefully regulate the smoking. One of 
these is constructed as follows : 
A foundation is made of brick, 9 feet square, 2 feet deep, and 12 inches thick, on which rest 
brick walls 8 inches thick and 15 feet high on the rear or furnace side, and 16 feet on the front or 
entrance side, giving the roof a pitch of one foot in eight. About 9 feet from the floor there is set 
into the walls, on the inside, a ledge of iron, on the front as well as on the rear wall, on which rest 
pieces of scantling for holding the herring sticks. These are followed by other ledges 12 inches 
apart until within a few inches of the top of the rear wall. The house is ventilated by a door in the 
roof, 12 by 15 inches in area, which may be opened or closed by means of a long rod. The furnaces are 
constructed in the rear of, and adjacent to, the smokehouse, and are 3 feet high, the end and division 
walls 4| inches thick, the four grates 20 inches wide and 28 incites deep, and the doors of cast iron 11 by 
12 inches in area. The smoke generated passes into four inclined flues, 8 inches square, connecting with 
the smoke or fish room. These smoke flues are 6 feet long and project two-thirds across the width of 
the house. In the top of each there are two openings which may be stopped with caps when but 
little smoke is needed, or each may be covered with a smoke spreader, which consists of a circular 
piece of tin or iron supported by wires attached to a rim made to fit tbe openings, and is 12 or 15 
inches in diameter and set about 18 inches above the tin to which it is attached. In such a building 
5,000 river herring may be smoked in 3 days. 
The material which is used for producing the smoke consists of some hard wood 
or hard-wood sawdust. Oak or hickory mixed with sawdust is the most common 
in this country, but a variety of other woods are used, depending on the facilities for 
obtaining it as well as its suitableness for the pur^iose. In the extensive herring 
smokehouses at Eastport, Maine, white birch is generally preferred, but driftwood 
which has been soaked with salt water is used to a considerable extent. At Gloucester 
and Boston ship carpenter’s chips of oak or oak edgings, with sawdust to smother the 
flames, are used principally. In New York City mahogany and cedar sawdust are 
used extensively, and at Buffalo maple wood is used exclusively. At Sandusky and 
Detroit the smokers use hickory wood and sawdust. Shavings and sawdust of pine 
wood are not very desirable, as they are apt to impart a resinous flavor to the fish. 
Dry chips of oak are used in Holland, and when those are not readily obtained, poplar, 
birch, or ash are used. In Denmark the fuel used is alder wood slightly moistened 
so as to make more smoke, and oak and beech sawdust is used to keep the flames 
