The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1902-07-25

thoroughly scrubbed with stiff brush
and passed along into the final bath
when they are ready for the cutting
machines. In the rear of the cutting
machine stands high rack, with
Stats for a floor laid two or three
inches apart and set on an incline
for draining purposes. A Chinaman
or Jap stands in this rack and feeds
the fish into revolving cylinder, car
rying the fish through a gang of
knives that cuts them into equal parts
of the size to be fed into the canning
machine, .or filters, as they are more
properly called. There are two
filters to each cutter, and it requires
two men to feed each filler. The cans
are.frst sailed and fed into trough
that runs to the filler and each plunge
of the machine fills pound can and
sends it spinning down to the man
who takes them out land puts them
onto feed table where they are taken
by. another. and put into the crimper.
This crimper is sort of endless
chain that revolvse with prongs stick
ing out about six inches long and
about six inches apart. The can in
place, this crimper catches it, carries
it to revolving disk with perfor-
ated steam pipe Immediately over it
ejecting hot steam. The can is whirl-
ed around this disk with lightning
like rapidity and as it revolves it
comes in contact with heavy brushes
that thoroughly cleans the outside of
the can, On the opposite side of the
can carrier stands little Chinaman,
with speed almost incomprehensible
/ feeds the tops of the can into a groove.
This comes into contact with the
filled can little further along, is
caught by a cunningly devised ar
rangement called the chopper" where
it covers the can, is pressed to place,
carried further along and automatical-
ly tipped into the soldering trough
| where it runs through over hot lead
and soldered tight. 1t keeps on going
for twenty or more feet, is carried
through spray of cold water and is
then taken out and placed upon a
tray. This tray when filled, is truck
ed to a tank of steam heated water.
grabbed by hooks and tackle and
dropped into the watts. Here experts
take possession and sort out the i'm
perfectly soldered cans. These are dis
covered by little bubbles arising, but
only yChinamsn's eye could discern
them without consuming too much
time. The leaky cans are passed over
to "mender" and then go in with
the batch. The filled crates are then
put onto truck six deep and run
into a retort. When filled retort
will accommodate 1904 cans or So
cases of 4S cans to the case. The
steam is then turned on and the tenn
perature run up to 212 degrees. When
this heat is attained they are cooked
for 80 minutes and taken out Every
can is then pricked by means of a
small mallet with sharp brad in the
end. This allows all accumulated
moisture or water to escape that may
have remained in the salmon when
going through the first process. The
holes are closed with solder and the
cans rushed into .another retort
where they are cooked for go minutes
under temperature of $40 degrees.
They are then taken out and put
through tank .of steam-heated caus-
tic soda water to take off all dirt and
grease from the cans, rinsed in tank
of clean hot water and rolled away to
the cooling room. Here they are left
for week or two. Then the cans
are lacquered, labeled, put into boxes
made for the purpose, nailed up, and
are ready for shipment. From three
to four weeks are usually taken after
canned before salmon are cnsidered
proper for the market.
This, in brief, is the way salmon
are canned. Our description of the
process may be somewhat crude and
lacking in the use of technical terms,
but after observing the packing of
several hundred cases it is the best we
can do, and in any event will suffice
to show that there is much labor, care
and expense in putting up pack of
forty to fifty thousand cases as is now
contemplated by the Alaska Fish and
Lumber Co.
Lest this letter be 80 long as to be
tiresome we shall be obliged to defer
to another time further matters rela-
ting to Shakan and Alaska. Mr.. 81.
E.. Dackins, of Blue Earth county, who
is here as bookkeeper for the company,
is we'll and hearty. He enjoys life as
we'll as a man could be expected to
away from his family, and is giving
the company he represents good SER
vice. He is popular with all and takes
a commendaDle interest in the success
of the. business.
| We expect to leave here the last of
the week for Juneau, Sitka and Skag-
way, and will arrive in Seattle about
the 23d Of the month. On our return
we expect to make tour of the Yell
lowstone park and hope to land in
Mankato the LIST day of August.
L. P. H.,
AS will be noted in our telegraph
dispatches today deadly wind swept
over the beautiful city Of Baltimore,
/ MARYLAND vastoruav oDd os q roo,1t