394 
BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 
a desirable substitution for repiliug, since the lower layers are thereby compressed 
more than the upper ones. All handling of fish from the vessel’s hold to beginning 
the water-horse is generally done with pews or long-handled forks with one or two 
prongs to each handle. 
From the water- horse the fish go to the flakes, which are of two kinds, stationary 
and canting, the former being the more common. They are about feet high, 8 
feet wide, and of convenient length, with passageways wide enough for haudbarrows 
between the staiids. The horizontal top, resting upon ordinary wooden horses 8 feet 
long and about 2 feet high, is in three parts: (1) The long joists 2 by 3^ inches and 12 
or 14 feet long; (2) the cross joists about If by 2 inches and 8 feet long; (3) the 1-inch 
ti'iangular strips, upon which rest the fish. Three of the long joists run lengthwise 
of each stand, and to these are nailed the cross joists, about 12 inches apart, and to the 
cross joists are nailed the triangular strips, 3 or 4 inches apart. At each end and 
transversely at suitable intervals over the flakes are placed frames about 15 inches 
above the Hakes, upon which cotton awnings may be stretched when the sun is hot. 
The canting frames differ from the above in that they are fixed only at the middle and 
to a horizontal axis, so that they can lie turned at an angle with the horizon, in order 
to expose only the edge of the fish to the sun and to get the benefit of even a slight 
breeze. With these flakes cotton awnings are dispensed with, but very few of them 
are now used in this country, and they are practical only in yards running north and 
south. At Gloucester many of the flakes are on ifiatforms built over shallow water. 
In Portland, Me., the roofs of the fish-houses are used as resting-iilaces for the flakes, 
and at Rockport, Mass., the flakes are built on tall posts overhanging the sloping 
rocks, thus allowing the air to freely circulate beneath the fish. The old style of 
brush hake is not used at present on the New England coast, nor are codfish dried on 
the beaches in the United States, as is comi'non in Nova Scotia and Newfoundland. 
About thirty years ago a form of Hake was introduced having screens or slatted 
frames, like those of window shutters, arranged to protect the fish from the weather 
or to screen them from the rays of the sun, as circumstances may require, but its use 
was never extensive. 
In carrying the fish from the butts to the flakes they are placed on wheelbarrows 
or on haudbarrows, the latter being usually made of oak and consisting of two sticks 
about 0 feet long, with 5 crossbars, each 21 inches long, 2^ inches wide, and 1^ inches 
thick. For carting the fish from wharf to wharf a low platform 4-wheeled truck, called 
a jigger, is in common use. 
The principal troubles in connection with curing fish are flies, sunburuing, and 
softening. Flies are avoided by keeping the vicinity of the Hakes clean and airy and 
free from all putrefying refuse. During some years the flies are so numerous that it is 
necessary to protect the slack-salted fish by sprinkling lime or salt about the flakes 
and yard to destroy the maggots. Sunburning is ijrevented by protecting the fish from 
the excessive action of the sun, and softening may result from a stinted use of salt on 
board the vessel, or from wet, cloudy weather during the process of curing. Cod and 
haddock burn quite readily unless properly protected, but there is little danger with 
hake and cask, even on hot sunny days. Because of climatic conditions it is frequently 
quite difficult to cure codfish during July and August on the New England coast, the 
air being moist and the sun so hot as to sunburn the fish very quickly; but in October 
and November little trouble is experienced from this source. On the New England 
