PRESERVATION OF FISHERY PRODUCTS FOR FOOD. 
365 
off and sold to oil and fertilizer factories for about $1 iier 100 pounds. The lisb are 
tlien placed mostly in stout pine boxes containing each about 150 pounds, and also in 
100-pound boxes and 200-pound barrels. In case a halibut is too long to go in the box 
the tail may be cut off; otherwise the tail and tins remain on. As the fish are placed 
in the box, the abdominal cavities are filled with crushed ice, and in summer time the 
fish are surrounded with chiseled ice. The cover is nailed down, the box and its 
contents weighed and shipped to its destination.* 
ICE IN FRESH-MACKEREL FISHERY. 
It is customary for vessels engaging in the fresh-mackerel fishery, especially in 
the spring southern fishery, to carry from 5 to 20 tons of ice, according to the size of 
the vessel and the time of the year. Usually from June 1 to September 30 the fish are 
gibbed, the gills and viscera being drawn out together through the gill-openings, but 
during the spring and fall the fish are iced round. The fish are stowed away as soon 
as practicable after being caught, being packed in bins in the hold of the vessel 
similar to those in the fresh cod and haddock vessels, except that each bin is divided 
horizontally by movable iilatforms into two or three parts or shelves to prevent 
crushing the lower layers of fish, as would be the case were they the full depth of the 
haddock bins. A thick layer of ice is placed in the bottom of the bin, and this is 
followed by alternate layers of fish and fine ice, the topmost layer being of ice. 
The extent of icing depends, of course, on the length of time that will probably 
elapse before the fish are placed on the market. Ice-grinding machines are no longer 
carried on any fishing vessels, since they take up much room and the ice may be 
chiseled more quickly than ground. Those mackerel caught when the hold is full or 
just before leaving the fishing-ground for market are sometimes placed with crushed 
ice in barrels on the deck of the vessel. Each vessel also carries barrels for salting 
such fish as are not to be carried to market fresh. 
Vessels engaged in the salt-mackerel fishery occasionally take fresh mackerel into 
port by placing them, after being gibbed, in barrels of water, but this is practiced 
only to a limited extent. 
ICING SHAD. 
Few species of fish show greater increase in selling price as the result of careful 
handling and icing than the shad, yet in the marketing of few valuable species is 
greater carelessness shown by the average shipper. It frequently happens that the 
fish immediately from the water are carelessly placed in the shixiping boxes or barrels 
with insufficient ice, much of which is melted in cooling the fish before the package 
starts on its journey. The package then being not quite full, the contents move from 
their respective positions in handling, resulting in loosening the scales and bruising 
the surface of the fish considerably. The shad trade is very large, the quantity mar- 
keted annually on the Atlantic coast of the United States approximating 14,(»00,000 
in number, or 52,500,000 pounds, nearly all of which are used fresh. 
The following is the best method of handling fresh shad: If practicable the fish- 
house should be raised 2 or 3 feet above the water or the shore, so that the wind 
may freely circulate and cool the floor. The fish ought to be handled carefully, bruises 
* See the Fishery Industries of the United States, sec. v, vol. 1, pp. 21-22. 
