The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1900-06-29
THE SALT FISH CROP.
A Great Advance Has Been Made An,
the Methods of Preparing the
Fish for Use.

ASM AOE U@Gs
The sailing Of fish dates from time
iInmemorial. In our own country Il
began with the first colonization, and
has since been one of the great in
dustries of our country, says the
Fishing Gazette.
At the present time there is not q
country in 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
ceased to be a luxury. 1t is we'll
known fact that in olden times fish
were eaten principally by the richer
class of people.
The demand for salt fish in the
United States in the last quarter Of q
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 yeara
the growth of the fresh water fish
cries has been large and has made
sea fisheries, both fresh and salt.
The vessels employed in the fisheries
to-day 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
s,,o
900 pounds. The catch by the ves-
sells of the world, including the fleets
OF Norway, Newfoundland, France
and Canada, is estimated at 500,000,-
600 pounds, the most of which is
exported to tropical countries, after
being hard dried. In this condition
they keep until ready for use, and
are very desirable food in the tropics.
There is not much information on
the subject of the early manner of
sailing fish, but there is no question
but there has been a great advance
made in the methods of curing fish
for market. There are 15G oremore
varieties of food fish. OF these only
very small proportion are salted in
large quantities for consumption 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 val.
ueless, but even in our own country
there is a tendency, as the more i'm.
portant varieties grow scarce, to con-
sumo fish which have been considered
unsuitable for food.
The principal varieties of fish salted
ere 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 it's
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 63,9o0,000 pounds.
The Goldfish is synonymous with the
name of Massachusetts,, and, using
the eloquent language of Representa-
tive Gallivan: Poised high aloft in
the hall of Massachusetts, house of
representatives, riding serenely the
sound 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 has hung through immemorial
years an ancient Goldfish, quantity
wrought in wood and painted to the
light. Humble the subject and home
'ly the design, yet this painted image
bears on it's fnny front a majesty
greater than the dignity that art can
lend to craven gold or chiseled mar
BILE. The sphere it fills is vaster than
that through which its prototype ca
reered 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 beautiful. For this sedate and
solitary fish is instinct with memories
and prophecy, like an oracle. 1t cele-
brates the rise of free institutions. 1t
emphasizes progress. 1t epitomlzes
Massachusetts.
'It typhies the world old simplicity
of those who go down to the sea in
ships, the goodly, godly race, whom
the stately Scriptural story has inn
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 glorified the an
nails of the commonwealth"
While the Bank salt Goldfish fleet at
many of the New England ports is
thing OF the past, there has been a
tendency to salt fresh fish to supply
the demand. The business of catch
ing fresh cod and haddock during the
last IS years has been carried on en-
ergetically, with the result of period
ical gluts on the market During
these gluts large quantities of fish
have been split and salted: If they
happen to arrive during the season
for tinnan haddies the haddock are
smoked, The amount of this fish salt
ed or smoked during the year 1898
was, roundly. 50,O0O,oOo pounds. Thus
a great salt fish trade has grown up
subsidiary to the fresh fish trade.
In the salt fish trade of the United