The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1936-03-25

about this and that.
DnOXI, Miss, March 25.-The
~ finest compliment can pay
the Biloxi shrimp canning factories
is to say that, after going through
one, could still eat shrimp.
Biloxi has the biggest concentra-
ton of shrimp canneries in Amer
lea. 1t has 10 of them. They are
called factories, which might lead
you to believe shrimp are manufac-
tured artihcially. But they aren't.
I assure you.
A shrimp is about the size and
shape of cigar, only curved. It is
a speckled sea-water green color,
and has little crab-like legs UNDER
meath.
Shrimp are a sort Of crab, guess,
for they move on the bottom in
huge schools, and they go like
lightning when scared.
They are caught with nets on the
bottom of the Gulf, sometimes as
far as so miles from shore. A
shrimp boat carries only two men,
and they are out three and four
days till they get load. -
AS soon as the shrimp are caught
they must go in ice, or they'll spoil.
When the boat is full it comes in
and man in boots with SCOOP
shove scoops the shrimp out onto
wire conveyor belt.
THIS belt carries the shrimp up
Il into the factory. Here two
men stand on either side of a
trough, watching the shrimp go by.
If they see bad one (and they're
trained to spot them at a clancy
they grab it and throw it into a
bucket.
Government inspection is some-
thing new in shrimp canning.
Only a year and half old, Isn't
compulsory even now, but 40 of
the so factories in the United States
have them.
The inspectors say the stuff that
was canned before that was shocks
ing. But now everything is sani-
tary. Doesn't even smell much Of
fish.
"Unshelling" the shrimp is the
biggest job. That isn't what they
call it here. I believe they call it
picking" but unshelling is what it
really is. .-
For the shrimp's body is sort
of like a shell. A woman has a
| pile of shrimp on the table be-
lore her. She grabs shrimp, takes
off its head, slips the meat out of
the shell. She drops the meat into
bucket and losses the head and
she'll over long, slanting trough.
filled with running water. This
carries the refuse outside the build
ing and drops it back into the wa
ter, and fish eat it.
| A LII the picking is done in one
n big room, at two long tables.
Sometimes as many as 200 people
are working there, all standing,
damned elbow to elbow.
Most of them are middle aged or
elderly women. There are some
boys, and some small children.
They all look sad and bleak. They
come to work at 4 in the morning
and many's the time they are still
there at that evening. They work
by the piece, so much bucketful.
1t seemed to me a disagreeable way
of making q very poor living. I'd
about as soon be a shrimp as a
shrimp picker.
The bucketSful of shrimp meat
go by conveyor belt to another part
of the factory. They stand in big
| buckets of brine for so minutes, to
| harden them. Then they're
'blanched," or boiled in big vats for
10 minutes.
Then they go over another con-
veyor belt, where girls eye them
closely, pick out little blades OF
grass, little rocks, broken pieces of
shrimp.
THEN to the canning table. Girls
l. stuff them into cans by hand.
On top a tablet of salt is dropped.
The cans slide under a spray. The
result is brine. A machine puts the
cap on, and seals the can.
Then another boiling. Then cold
water dip, and then to the Grating
department, and the trains.
Sixty million shrimp every year,
in this one factory alonel I sup
pose eventually it gets just like go
million grains Of corn to corn
shelter, but to me they'll always be
so million shrimp having their heads
snapped off by sad old women.