Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1872-09-20

PORTLAND, Or, Aug. 81, 1872
promised to give you some details of the
mode in which salmon are caught and cured on
the Lower Columbia river. Superficial thinkers
may conclude that it is very simple operation.
1t is just The opposite. 1t requires peculiar
adaptation, long experience and large capital to
make it successful on an extensive scale.
All the curing establishments have a certain
number of boats of their own for fishing. There
are large number of fishermen who make con-
tracts for the season with the curing houses to
supply them with all they catch at given rate.
The general price paid is from twenty to twenty
five cents fish. The boats start for the fishing
grounds late in the evening with two men, one
to manage the boat and the other to look after
the net. At dark the drag net is cast, being six
hundred feet long; it is sunk by leads and float
ed by large corks. The net drifts with the cur
rent, the salmon are running up the current,
and in doing so are caught by the gills in the
meshes OF the net and held firm. The motion
of the cork on the surface indicates when the
fish are taken. The net is relieved of its con-
tents several times during the night according
to circumstances. This is followed till day
light, when the nets are hauled in and the boats
make for home. The number taken by each
boat in 4 night depends on the fitness and eXpe-
rience of the men for the work. Some boats
during the season just closed took occasionally
from 100 to 2l0 fish in night. The boats fish
ing for one of the largest establishments took an
average of IS salmon each night for the season
from April to August. One boat, with two
men, made an average of from SIS to S1S75 a
night, or from $3.50 to $3.50 for the four
months, according to contract. In such cases
the men supply their own boats and nets.
The salmon vary in size from fifteen to fifty
pounds. The average weight when dressed is
sixteen pounds. The nearer the salmon is
caught to the sea the color is a purer read the
belly is fatter the body is firmer, and the favor
is more delicious. This is the reason why the
large canning establishments are all so near the
mouth of the Columbia riyir, and why the
Chinook" salmon-a name taken from an Indi-
an tribe that once lived there-are the favorite
salmon in the Columbia. After the fish getinto
the fresh water of the river they eat little or
none, and rush for their favorite spawning
grounds-the shallow waters of the rivers, hun
dreds of miles from the sea. This impoverishes
and weakens them, rendering them poor food
and utterly unfit for curing.
MODE OF CURING SALMON.
When the fishermen bring the salmon to the
wharf they are landed and counted. Boys place
them on the dressing table, where two men are
employed in opening and cleaning them. One
of these men, with strong sharp knife, takes
off the head at cut. With seven more cuts as
quick as thought, he removes the fins and tail
with another cut the fish is opened, and with two
back strokes of the knife it is disemboweed, the
blood removed, and plunged into lG:ge tub of
water. A hundred fish are thus disposed of in
an hour, or thousand a day. The second man
every particle of blood from the fish and placing
it perfectly clean and pure on the cutters table.
The cutters table is in immediate connection
with the dressers table. The cutter places the
6sh in frame, and, with powerful knife ofsix
blades, set IN the frame, cuts the salmon in
moment into six pieces. Each piece is the exact
depth of the can in which it is to bescured Two
men are employed III subdivdng these six pieces
into about twenty four, so as to suit the size of
the one and two pound cans. Twelve men are
employed in putting the fish into these cans,
Others are employed putting on the lids, and a
large staff of men are engaged in soldering. All
these processes require great experience, atten-
tlon, care, cleanliness and skill, so as to secure
the desired result-success.
The cans are now ready for cooking. They are
put on frame suspended by chains and lowered
into watts of hot water, where they remain three
hours; they are then taken up, the air allowed
TO escape by small aperture in the lid, the tins
are carefully examined; if perfect the opening
in the lid is soldered and all are lowered into the
water again which is almost at boiling heat, here
they remain three hours longer, when they are
fully cooked. The cans are then turned over to
be secured by boys, then to be lacquered by be-
ing dipped in q solution to prevent rust and to
beautify, then TO be labeled and boxed when
they are ready for market. From the time the
fish are laid on the dressing table until they are
put IN eases ready for shipment, they go through
twelve different processes. The proper perform
ance of each is essential to the completeness of
the whole. The average number of eases put up
each day is 5000 two pound cans, or eight thou
sand one pound cans. Whether the fish are put
up in one or two pound cans, each case contains
torty-eight pounds of salmon. The four large
canning establishments cured an average of
1900 cases each during the last season. The
results Of this seasons salmon fishing in the
lower Columbia river, for curing purposes, are
$4,000 salmon caught, weighing, dressed,
$500 900 pounds, making $4,000 cases of canned
salmon and $4,000 barrels of mess salmon, worth
in the wholesale Market $685., 2OO,-iSaR Fran.
cisco Bulletin.