Every evening, Wilmington daily commercial., 1920-10-25
Fish For The Hoosicrs
ByFreder'c =. Haskin.

i vi iftbIt bNIb VRSNs u6Ay ~ '"''' ~ 'bS"J
the same fshy advantages ~ any part
Of the New En- and Coast.
| Big business, which has At last invaded
the fishing industry, bnA developed prac-
| tical way Of keeping fish In a fresh condi-
| tion without ice for two weeks and even
| longer. Sample shipments sent from Bos-
| ton to Chicago and Indianapolis arrived
| in excellent condition. Fish were sent
| even 10 Denver and then back 10 Boston
and were pronounced perfectly fresh at
Denver and at the end Of the journey.
The men who are thus experimenting
| with the supposedly impossible are group
| ed into corporation with headquarters
here in Boston. They have the biggest
/ feet Of steam trawlers on the coast, and
| they claim 10 be the foremost prosres-
| sives Of the fishing business. They ann 70
see the haddock and the cod delivered
/ regularly all over the country from the
| Mexican border 10 the plains Of the
| Dakotas, and to make fresh fsh as ia
| uiliar All article of food as beef.
| Here, they say, il the ocean, full Of fish
| millions Of them, and more edible kinds
| than the average American ever heard
| of-and the United States has been taxing
| from all its water combined trifing two
| billion pounds q year.
| But now those fish, who have been Ev-
| ing idle lives and dying without any mis-
| sion accomplished, and those landlubbers
| who have never taken fish seriously, are
| about 10 be brought together. Advertls-
| ing is going TO do il, aud money, ard
corporation that IL determined 70 take
some Of the antique romance out Of hsh-
| ing and inject q good deal Of twentieth
century Standardization.
KEW SHIPPING METHODS.
Most important Of ali is the new process
! by which the fish can be Transported
Details Of this process are secret, but
| the general idea is that the fsh are chilled
by sea water kept at temperature gusf
above freezing. Work along this line Of
/ preserving fish in fresh condition was
/ sometime ago tried by the Bureau Of fisn-
cries, and with the corporation OF the
government bureau the corporation here
/ + working out the fine points 20 make the
| plan practicable on q large scale.
The company hopes soon 20 gtsrt ship
/ ping fresh FISH regularly to inland points.
| h i convinced that the market does not
/ have to be especially created, but that
/ the demand for fresh hahbut msckerei,
/ and other well-known varieties viii fully
/ equal the supply the company can furnish.
A single incident is mentioned BY 3 rep
/ resentatIve of the company 70 show the
eagernevs with which the towns far from
I the sea viii gobble up the delleseies OF
/ the Atlantic. OF FIVE carloads Of hsh sent
/ to indianapolis ss an experiment, 4O.Nco
/ pounds were sold the morning the ship
+ Tnent arrived and Indianapolis !oyfuliy sat
/ down to fresh haddock for dinner Tor
J the first time in It's history.
/ But though the fish magnates MAINTAIN
/ that an inland market IS waiting, u would
seem that the general public Will need
/ some education IN selecting, cooking and
/ even eating fish before 1t VIII be ready Tor
/ some Of the varieties so familiar 10 New
England. Otherwise enthusiasm aroused
NAV die an early death due 70 amateur
/ cookery. and persons who try one kind
of fish and find It lacking may be aroused
10 swear off fish for life.
FISH NEEDS PREss-AGEETs.
IF the corporation expects 70 develop
early curiosity into q large and steady de-
mand for its products, 1t viii undoubted-
lv have 70 put across Al intensive course
OF public education, Including street-car
cards. billho. rds. magazine plctorIals, and
all the other methods OF driving N iacss II
order to convince everybody that the
superiatIve merits of hsn cannot be lg-
nored.
pastronornic history Of the United states
has not so far shown US TO be a race OF tsh-
eaters. The coasts have not consumed any
thing ike the amount OF sea food the tlsh-
errnen could catch. ard back from the
shore fresh FISH mas always been the same
as foreign dellcacy.
Hoover did his best IN his food conser-
vstion campaigns 70 interest the country
In the advantages and pleasures Of con-
s,Irning larger quantities of both sea ana
river food. and the Bureau of Fisheries
has pushed the cause OF fish from every
angle as fsr IS its Appropriation would
permit. The result OF these efforts and of
normal progress in the fishing industry y
shown by figures. In 1917 the United
States consumed 20 pounds Of flsh per
person, and now it consumes . pounds
The insigni6cance of our achievements
in eating fish IS not noticeable from this
until YOU compare our record with those
of other sea-coast countries. In England
the average person eats 100 pounds
wear: ia Norway and Sweden, 130 pounds;
and .Japan beats them all with about 500.
1t is true that our average would be
much more creditable il We counted only
the area in this country over which II has
been possible to transport fresh tsh, as
practically al parts Of these other eoun-
tries are reasonably accessible 70 tlshlng
ports. An average Of only half pound OF
fish is eaten by persons ln some parts OF
this country, and this offsets the cOmpara-
tively large amount consumed IN the real
fish-eating districts.
The fishing interests here in Boston
say that they are practically in the posi-
ton in which the beef business found itself
when it began to organl 50 years ego.
Than beef was handed out TO the public
by the same happy-go-lucky methods
which now characterize hshlng. Beet
cattle We're trailed sometimes 3 thousand
miles TO the nearest market, for nobody
would eat beef unless il was fresh killed.
Then organization was developed, and
refrigerator cars invented, and beef has
been distributed from central point ever
since.
The fisheries industry her. hopes to
get on a basis similar TO that Of the beef
organization. 1t was started by collecting
a feet of % modern trawlers instead OF
maintaining feet of schooners and -
cellaneous craft. These steam trawlcls
are said TO bring in as many hsh in one
short cruise as schooner can catch IN
year.
Then, the company is taking hsherman's
luck and harnessing il TO efficiency by
means of wireless. When several trawlers
set out on a cruise for swordhsh or cod,
one is apt to strike waters where the large
fish are plentiful, while the Others may get
nothing but a few hauls of small, less valu-
a 1. II 4. l., Il.