Evening capital news. (Boise, Idaho) 1901-1927, 1916-02-06

Tor much less, the poorest bringing only
about $l2 per barrel. Some OF the whale
meat is saved for cattle food. 1t sells for $40
per ton. The fertilizers bring from $50 to
$27 ton. 1t has been suggested that the
salmon canneres might can the whale meat,
and make a whale-beef packing industry in
this part OF the world. They could do this
during the parts of the year when the sal
mon are not running. Whale beef is said to
be healthful and palatable; the product
would be large. as a single whale sometimes
weighs as much as 10000 pounds.
The salmon is by far the most important
of the fish of Alaska. There are four kinds,
all of which are delicious. The largest and
most valuable is the king salmon, which has
an average weight Of p pounds and some
times weighs as high as 100 pounds. This is
found in southeastern Alaska in all months
of the year, and in May and June it runs up
many of the rivers to spawn. The next in
size is the sockeye or red salmon, which is
about yard long and has an average weight
of five pounds 1t is found all over Alaska
and it runs chiefly from June until the mid
die OF August The silver or Coho salmon
is not so valuable, on account of the pale
ness or light color of its flesh. 1t weighs on
the average about six pounds and runs later
than the sock-eve. The hunpbac< is the
smallest of our salmon. 1t is caught by the
millions in southeastern Alaska, and many
OF the canneres depend upon it. 1t weighs
up to pounds In addition to these four
species we have also the dog salmon. which
is good for freezing, sailing and smoking,
but poor for canning. This salmon is
shipped largely to Japan.
OF the S370000O0 invested in the fishing
industry OF Alaska about thrty-four mil
lions are devoted to the catching, canning
and shipping of salmon The number
caught i'll single year is so great that il the
fish were equally divided among the families
OF the United States there would be three for
every household and leaye some to spare
SO many salmon were caught in Alaskan
waters last year that if they were loaded ON
freight cars at 80 pounds to the car the train
required to carry them would fill three lines
of track reaching from New York to San
Francisco. Such train would be more than
5000 miles long or thousand miles longer
than the distance through the earth at the
center.
The value of the salmon taken that year
was almost S20000O00 1t came from 81
canneries and it included 90 per cent of the
salmon catch of the PACIFIC coast The
number OF cans put up was close to 100000
600, enough to give two cans to every man,
woman and child now living under the
American flag. II addition to this many
thousand barrels of picked salmon, mild
cured salmon and of smoked salmon bellies
and backs were shipped from Alaska. In
deed the whole product now forms an I'M
portant part of our food supply
The business of the Alaskan canneries is
enormous | went through one in Ketchi-
kan that will put up seven and one-half mil
lion cans OF salmon this year, and in addi-
ton, will freeze hundreds of thousands of
pounds to be sent in a frozen state to the
east. The buildings of the cannery cover
several acres, and the fish are brought in by
the boatloads and dumped out by the thou
sand. When they reach the wharves they
are so fresh that they are still kicking and
they fairly fly through the Iron chink, a
machine which cleans each fish, cutting off
its head, tail and fins and taking out its in
sides within the time of a watch tick. 1t
used to be that all this work was done by
hand, and those hands were usually owned
by Chinaman. When the machine was in
vented to take the place of the Chinaman it
,vae uick-nan1ed the "iron chink and co If
is known to this day. The inventor was a