Freeland tribune. (Freeland, Pa.) 1888-1921, 1900-08-01
THE SALTED FISH CROP.
GREAT IMPROVEMENTS IN THE METH
obs OF CURING.

Inc saltlng OF hSh dates from time
lmmemorial. In our own country it
began with the first colonization and
has since been one of the great indus
tries of our country.
just when the first fish was salted
in the world is fact that nobody
knows. Enough is known, however,
to enable us to say that it was thou
sands of years ago. We have records
OF codtishery off the coast OF Norway
as early as the year 900. The en-
cravings on the ancient Egyptian mon
uments testify to the fishery OF the
ancients.
At the present time there is not
country i'll the temperate zone where
fish are not salted. 1t was probably
not until the fifteenth century that
the consumption of fish commenced
on large scale by the great middle
class of people, at which time it ceased
to be luxury. 1t is n well known
that in olden times fish were eaten
principally by the richer class of peo-
pie.
The demand for salt fish in the
United States in the last quarter OF
century has shown decline, due in
the greatest measure to the develop
ment of the fresh water fisheries and
the trade in using the products of the
sea fisheries. During recent years
the growth of the fresh water fisher
les has been large and has made in
cursions into the business of the sea
fisheries, both fresh and salt.
The vessels employed in the fisher
les today are larger, faster and better
equipped than ever before. The
catch of salt Goldfish by the vessels of
the United States the last 25 years
has increased from 70, 600, 600 to 150,-
600, 600 pounds. The catch by the
vessels of the world, including the
fleets of Norway, Newfoundland,
France and Canada, is estimated at
500, 600, 900 pounds, the most of
which is exported to tropical coun-
tries after being hard dried In this
condition they keep ready for use
and are very desirable food in
the tropics. 1t is light, palatabe
food and best adapted to the climate.
Then, again, the church imposes so
]
in demand.
There is not much information on
the subject of the early manner of
sailing fish, but there is no question
but there has been great advance
made in the methods of curing fish
for the market. There are $50 or
more varieties Of food fish. OF these
only a very small proportion are
salted in large quantities for con-
sumption by the people. 1t is well
known that in European countries
some varieties Of fish are consumed as
food which in our own markets are
considered vaueless, but even in our
own country there is tendency, as
the more important varieties grow
scarce, to consume fish which have
been considered unsuitable for food.
The principal varieties OF fish salt
ed are the Goldfish, mackerel, herring,
salmon, alewives, shad, trout, hake,
haddock, cusk and pollock. These
varieties of fish probably make up
nine-tenths OF the salt fish consumed
by the people.
The North Atlantic is probably
richer, both as to quantity and quail
ity, with edible fish than any other
division of the globes waters, and it
may be added that where it washes
the coast of North America IS its
richest subdivision.
The salt groundfish industry is To-
Gated principally in Massachusetts,,
where the amount of Goldfish,
hake, haddock, cusk and pollock
salted in 1899 was 63, 900, 900 pounds.
The Goldfish is synonymous with
the name of Massachusetts, and, using
the elegant language of Representa-
tive Gallivan: Poised high aloft in
the hall of Massachusetts House OF
representatives, riding serenely the
waves of debate, unperturbed by the
ebb and flow of enactment and repeal,
all the desultory storms that vexed
the neither depths of oratory, there
las hung through immemorial years
an ancient Goldfish, quantity wrought
in wood and painted to the light.
Humble the subject and homely the
design, yet this painted image bears
on its tinny front majesty greater
than the dignity that art can lend to
craven gold or chiseled marble. The
sphere it fills is vaster than that
through which its prototype careered
with all the myriad tribes of the great
deep. The lessons which may be
learned from it are nobler than any
to be drawn from what is only beau
tiful. For this sedate and solitary
fish is instinct with memories and
prophesy, like an oracle. 1t cele-
brates the rise of free institutions 1t
emphasizes progress. 1t epitomizes
Massachusetts.
'It typities the world old simplicity
of those who go down to the sea in
ships, the goodly, godly race, whom
the stately scriptural story has i'm
mortalized, whose sturdy virtues the
Saviour himself distinguished in the
choice of Peter, the apostolic fisher
man, and whose singular achievements
on sea and land, in the arts, alike in
peace and war, have gloritied the an