512 
BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 
CANNING SALMON. 
The canning of salmon appears to have originated at Aberdeen, Scotland, in 1824; 
but prior to the establishment of salmon canneries in the United States, in 1864, the 
application of the process to this fish was very limited. During the last 30 years 
this industry has been confined to the western coast of the North American continent 
and to certain Asiatic countries bordering the Pacific coast. It has become one of 
the great fishery industries of the world, the annual output exceeding $10,000,000 in 
value, over 99 per cent being prepared on the American continent. 
On the western coast of the United States the industry was begun in 1864 by 
Messrs. Hapgood, Hume & Co., at Washington, on the Sacramento Eiver. A member 
of this firm had been engaged in canning lobsters in New Brunswick, on the shore of 
the Bay of Chaleur, and methods somewhat similar were applied to the canning of 
salmon. The machinery and appliances were very crude as compared with modern 
devices. The fish, cut into transverse sections of suitable lengths, were placed in the 
cans and the cover attached, with ventholes open. The cans were then nearly sub- 
merged in fresh water contained in large round-bottomed iron kettles and boiled for 
an hour, after which they were removed and the vent closed. They were next placed 
without arrangement in an iron bath kettle containing salt water heated to a temper- 
ature generally from 228° to 230° F. After an hour’s bath the cans were removed and 
placed in a tank of cold water. When cooled they were wiped off, the ends painted 
with red lead, the sides labeled, and the cans packed in the cases. No process was 
employed for testing for leaks, and consequently about one-half of the product of the 
first year spoiled.* Much difficulty was experienced in placing the canned salmon on 
the San Francisco market, but eventually the entire pack was sent in separate lots to 
Australia, where it netted $16 per case to the shippers, t 
The trade gradually increased from year to year with the improved transportation 
facilities and the development of markets for the product. In 1866 the first Columbia 
Kiver cannery was established at Eagle Cliff, about 40 miles above Astoria. In 1874 
canning was begun in British Columbia, and in 1882 Alaska began to make a showing. 
The total pack on the west coast of North America in 1892 was 1,323,000 cases of 48 
1-pouud cans each, approximating in value $6,549,000; and in 1895 it was 2,175,986 
cases, worth $10,081,997 at first hands. 
During the first years of the trade South America and Australia furnished the 
consumers of the canned salmon, but as the output increased an English market was 
sought. The latter did not at first take kindly to the American product, but after 
persistent efforts on the part of some of the most extensive London wholesale dealers 
the article became better known and the peoj^le of Great Britain soon became the 
principal consumers, sometimes using 500,000 cases in a single year. 
Several sj)ecies of salmon are utilized in the canneries of the west coast, the 
j)riucipal ones being chinook or quinnat salmon {Oncorhytichus tschmvytscha), blueback 
salmon or redfish (0. nerka), silver salmon (O. kisutch), steelhead {Salmo yairdneri), 
dog salmon (0. keta), and humpback (0. gorbuscha). 
* Hume’s Salmon of the Pacific Coast, p. 8. 
t Report U. S. Fish Commission, 1888, pp. 167, 168. 
