The Alaska daily empire., 1916-04-04
UNCLE SAM POINTS TO
 BIG WASTE THAT IS
 CAUSED BY cANNERlE'

CAUSED BY OANN-'''-o
 The Seattle Times of Q recent is- une with Washington date hne' says: .,.,
 The government again calls atten' ton to the great waste which at1enos inc salmon packing Industry In the Pacific Northwest, and urges the can ners to make full use of the materials lot their disposal, and thus materially Increase their profits.
 It is estimated by experts or tne Department of Agriculture that m the Northwest there is an actual waste of at least Si75O,OOO year, and all because tue canners do not take aa- vantage of their opportunities. TO the average canner. producing 6O'OVV cases of canned salmon in a season the loss is about S1S,500 Q year.
 The general situation In the iertil' izer industry of the country, due to the war in Europe, emphasizes this waste at the salmon cannerles. Fish scrap. 1t is pointed out. has long been used as a source of both nitrogen and hone phosphate and on the Atlantic coast an industry of considerable pro portions has developed in the produc' lion of fish scrap for fertilizer pur- poses
 It is announced that 30 per cent. of +ho n,aferial as it comes Co the can- ning factory Is discarded as waste. This includes heads. flns tails. roe and viscers. This raw canning waste contains, say the experts, the follow ling percentages of fertilizer ingred- ients:
 Ammonia, 8.67; bone phosphate, 4.46; and. in addition, about lO.42 per cent of-fish oil.
 Waste ls Great
 In 1913 approximately e,7oo,OoO cas- es of salmon were packed in American canueries The waste products from inc industry could have been made to yield about 1,4OO tons of fish scrap worth $40 a ton for fertilizer purpos' es and considerably more than that as a hog and poultry food, and about i 5OOOOO gallons of flsh oil worth in ordinary times thirty cents gollon, wholesale. but now commanding for ty.seven cents gallon From the average cannery, producing 5O.o0O cas- es of canned salmon a year, the out put of dry fish scrap might be at least l115 tons. and of on about l9'ooO gal Ions.
 To a great extent, say the officials, this material ls now wasted. In ad- dition, there are other sources or waste. Large quantities of fish other than salmon are caught along with the salmon and these arc frequently thrown away as worthless Occas- ionally. too, more salmon are taken than can be handled by the cannery and scowloads are sometimes discard ed.
 The methods of handing tho mater ial that Is now thrown away are sim pie and we'll understood by readers of The Times. In other industries slmpllar waste is first cooked, then pressed and finally dried. preferably in a modern rotary drier If Q reduc- tion plant were operated by a by-pro- duct plant of the cannery proper It might be practicable to use the waste heat from the fires under the factory ia onorafn fho dripr
 In recent years, 1t is pointed out some of the Pacific coast canneries have developed Q considerable mar ket for their waste material for feed ing purposes This scrap, it is said, is competing successfully with meat scrap as hog and poultry food. A lighter colored salmon oil has also been obtained. About twenty-seven gal Ions, worth SS to SIP, can be extracted from each ton of raw waste.
 What Department says
 Tn a bulletin in which these mat ters are discussed at some length. the department of agriculture says;
 "Despite these possibilities of prof it under the present practice in most cannerles tho waste material is al- lowed to pass through openings in tho floor directly mo the water be- meath the cannery. AS it is heavier than water, lt sinks to the bottom or is devourod by dog-nsh which swarm around some establishments. In cer- tain instances this practice pollutes both the air and the water in the neighborhood and frequently Is unsani- tary as 1t is wasteful.
 "Conditions in the industry operate against tho establishment of central rendering plants to care for the waste from O number Of canneries. The canneries are ln many instances To- cated at such distances from ono an- other as to make the collection of the waste by a central rendering plant impracticabie.
 Some of Drawbacks
 'The shortnoss Of the canning sea son is another objection For nine months of the year such plant would be closed and, for considerable per iods during the remaining three or