518 
BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 
wages amoiintiug to about $90,000 auiiually. The largest item of expense in the 
canning houses, aside from the cost of the oysters, is the purchase of tin, labels, etc., 
this amounting to about $315,000 annually. The incidental expenses of the Baltimore 
canneries amount to about $25,000. The total cost of handling a bushel of oysters 
in the canning honses is about 29 cents. 
The cost of the oysters for the canning trade at Baltimore has averaged during 
recent years about 55 cents per bushel. Each bushel yields about 50 ounces of “ solid 
meats.” These are packed in l-j)oixnd and 2 pound cans and cans of miscellaneous 
sizes, most of the latter being a tride larger than the 1-pouud cans, which contain 
about 5 ounces of solid meats, the 2-pouud cans containing 10 ounces each. The price 
received during the last seven or eight years for the 1 pound and 2-pound cans has 
averaged about 75 cents and $1.10, respectively, per dozen. 
The following summary shows the extent of the oyster canning at Baltimore 
during the most recent year for which detailed returns are available: 
Extent of Baltimore oyster canning in 1891-92. 
Capital invested, employees, etc. 
Expenses. 
Products. 
Establishments, etc. 
Number, 
A'alue, etc. 
Items. 
Amount. 
Cans. 
Ounces. 
Value. 
Number of establish- 
meiits 
$1, 255, OtiO 
$1, 170, OtIO 
4,818 
Cost of oysters 
Wages paid sliiickers. 
Wages i)aid to others. 
Tin cans, labels, etc .. 
TnpirlAn tnlQ 
$1, 201, 600 
9?! 500 
320, 000 
25, 000 
5-onuce cans, 9, 388,050 . . . 
lO ouuce cans, 4.043,822. . . 
Miscellaneous cans 
46, 1)43, 250 
46, 438, 220 
22, 635, 000 
$764,450 I 
725,515 j 
366, 545 1 
Value of property... 
1 Cash capital 
Oysters rece^ived, 
bii.i^bels 
2, 396, 763 
Total 
1,717,780 
Total 
116,016, 470 
1,856,510 
The oysters on the Gulf of Mexico are large and less firm in structure than those 
of Chesapeake Bay; couse(piently, when canned in the ordinary manner, they tend to 
disintegrate and have a somewhat slimy appearance. In 1880 a process was invented 
by Mr. J. T. Maybury by which the texture of the oysters may be hardened so that 
they may be boiled without disintegrating.* This iirocess is as follows: 
To 10 gallons of pure water add one-half gallon of good commercial vinegar and 1,®,, gills of 
a saturated aipieous solution of salicylic acid, to which mixture suflicient common salt is added to 
impart the requisite salty llavor to the oysters. The mixture is boiled a few minutes and poured over 
t he oysters in the cans, which are at once sealed and placed in a steam hath, the temperature of Avhich 
is 202*2 p This temperature is gradually raised to 240° and maintained at that degree for about 45 
minutes. The cans are then vented, resealed, and steamed as before for about 30 minutes, when they 
are ready to be labeled and packed. 
The acids serve to coagulate the fatty portion of the oyster and thereby render 
its body more dense and tirm. The acids are harmless and the quantity is so small 
that they are not perceptible to the taste. 
The term canning is frequently apiilied incorrectly to a muclt less permanent 
method of preserving oysters, viz, placing them in hermetically sealed tin cans or 
small wooden kegs, which contain from 25 to 209 oysters, without cooking them. By 
this method the germs within the can or keg and its contents are not destroyed, and 
the oysters will keep for only a few days, and even then the cans are usually shipped 
in iced boxes. Twenty years ago a very large part of the oyster trade was carried on 
*See Letters Patent No. 230561, dated July 27, 1880. 
