The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, January 15, 1899, Page 25

A Scuoor IN A FiSH Special to The Sunday Call. AIRHAVEN, Wash., Jan. 13.— Over clear waters, lizhtly danc- soft mu of a gen- to the wafting its way from Puge crowd of Ei up tow ap, one of the sights peculiar to this region. # had steamed through a vast on. We had ) them co’ multitu fla .. ‘through limpid waters, or now and ‘’then in exuberance of sport throwing from crest to crest of the t that trap, with its 20.000 ed salmon, making an almost ss well nigh forty feet square forty f deep, the whole acted by the tid waying in such man- s to cause the trap owner much easiness, was the crowning sight of and Tie up to the trap piles? By no mean A single line from our . steamer th the slightest pull might tear out the whole trap and $2000 worth of fish be Ic So we steam easily forward and Bhck in front of the trap and watch the trap - crew with a large band net dip out 50 to 100 salmon at a , until we have 2000 or more transferred from the to the w water ; Practically all the salmon canned in world is packed in Northwest ; that is, Oregon, Washington. ylumbia and Alaska. Salted n are put up to a small extent on berian coast, and the market is 1d in China and Japan, but as no X T ave been taken to keep up a supply of fish on the Asiatic coast. they -have been rapidly depleted, and to-day ‘the Oriental nations are looking to this for their salted saimon. and have been sent to Puget Sound not be filled this season. and Australia draw their en- nned salmon from this rom British Columbia. > United States draws Its s from Alaska, Oregon and Wz 1gton, and nc the new markets of the Hawailan and Japan will secu 1ed salmon from the same source. n 1897, put up about 28.000 the Sacramento bucket compared with the output this section, for practically 8,000.000 cas of salmon were packed that vear in the Pacific Northwest—Alaska. Brit- ish Columbia, Oregon and Washing- ton—each packing in round figures one- third of the output. The salmon pack of the world in 97 was approximately 3,000,000 cases. .Each case consists of forty-eight 1- pound cans; hence the number of cans used was at least 144,000,000. Three million cases of salmon are worth at .the place of production between $10,- 00,000 and $12,000,000. At least $9,000,000 1] is handled in producing this pantity. Thousands of men, women, girls and boys and Chinamen are em- < TY rieties of salmon in Puget Sound re locally known as the chinook, tyee or spring, the sockeye, he humpback, the silver dog and steel- 2 ve is the choice can- The flesh is a rich red, the T fish meat is fine fibered, the oil is rich in coloring, and what makes this fish par- ticularly desirable from the canner’s point of view is the fact that this . Species moves in countless schools. * Five thousand salmon in a scow is an ordinary sight. Thirty or forty thou- sand fish on the floor of a cannery makes a showing. The sockeye is artificially propagated in hatch: and spawns in a natural state as well. From 3000 to 4000 eggs make the product of one female. The “female lays her eggs as far up a creek or river toward its headwaters as pos- . sible, and, after spawning, dies. Were it not for this provision of nature, .coupled with the attacks of enemies without number, for it is estimated _that but 2 per cent of the eggs hatched naturally arrive at maturity, there - would soon be no Pacific Ocean—noth- ing but fish stretching from the Pacific coast to the Orient. This statement seems extravagant, -~ yet the logic of calculation proves it. - Tt {s calculated that the productiveness of the female sockeye salmon is 3000 eggs. Assume that all arrive at ma- turity and that half that number. de- velop into female salmon. The first generation would consist of two, the second generation of 3000, the third gen- tration of 1500 times 3000 or 4,500,000; the fourth generation of—well, the lino- type cannot keep up with the proces- sion of “0’s”. Or, to put it in another ay, i imated that 5,500,000 sock- untry alone egg capacity had into mature saimon, their pro y would have numbered 8,250,- 000,000 fish. ‘hen a few months old the young e descends the river and goes and no man knows where it developed to se: spends its time until the fourth year, when the school returns to its place of birth to fulfill the functions and com- plete the round of nature. It is on the return just before or just after entering the river that the fish is taken by traps or seines. ecessarily used in Traps are the clear phos- waters of the Sound. In trap consists of a row of driven from the shore out into deep water. This row is frequently sev- eral hundred feet long. ¥rom above the line of high water to the bottom of the Sound a net is hung, making, as it were, a fence. As the schools of sal- mon sweep along the shore they en- counter the net, and leading along it enter the heart of the trap through an entrance which, however, does not serve as an exit. The heart or trap proper is a large bag hung from the piles, and is generally forty feet square and forty feet deep. From the trap the salmon are taken in scows to the can- nery. As they are thrown from the 8cow into a hoist which lands them on the cannery floor, they are counted for the first and only time. In most canneries Chinamen are em- ployed to do the work. They are paid by the case. A canner, fi instance, makes a contract with a Chinese con- tractor to furnish men enough to pack 25,000 cases at a price ranging from 40 to 45 cents per case. If the output is over 25,000 cases the Chinamen are paid for the surplus. If less the canner has to settle with the Chinamen for the dif- ference between the amount packed and his guarantee. The first operation in the cannery is called ‘‘butchering,” that is, the head, fins and tail are taken off and the en- trails removed. The fish now go into the “sliming” tank, where they are par- tially washed, thence into a second tank, where they are washed thor- oughly. The fish now go to the power cutter—a series of revolving knives, which cut each fish into the length of a can. Next, by hand, the fish is cut lengthwise into pieces that will go into a can, The can has no top on up to the present. There is a small quan- tity of salt in the can, and the fish is put in on top of that. The can now filled with fish goes to the washing machine, which not only washes the oil off the outside of the can, but also packs the meat down in the can to permit the “chip” to be put in and the top to be put on. You have doubtless noticed two little drops of solder on the top of a can of saimon, one in the center, the other anywhere. Both of these drops fill holes, but the top, which is now placed on, has only the open hole in the center of it. The can now goes to a crimper, which squeezes the edge of the top down against the body, and directly from here the cans roll on their sides in an in- clined position, with the head lower than the bottom, through a bath of acid and then through a bath of solder kept hot by fires underneath. If any steam is generated in the can during this process the top would not stay in place, hence the little open hole in the center to permit the steam to escape, and hence that “chip” of tin to keep the fish from plugging the hole at this end, From the soldering machine the cans roll down a long incline, the hot solder meantime settling in the seam. There is a fascination in watching cans dodge around the crimping machine, take a taste of acid, struggle through the hot solder and then chase one after the other dewn the incline at the rate of 200 a minute. h. At the end of the incline they run under a spray of water to cool the hot solder and are there caught and placed in ‘‘coolers.” Now for the first test and tests come frequently. Each cooler is lowered into a tank of eclear water. If any can leaks the fact is betrayed by little bubbles. Those that leak are taken out and carried to the hand- solderers, who are remarkably expert. One cooler of cans is placed on another on a small iron cart until they are about six high. One cart after another is loaded and they are all rolled into a steam box where the fish are given the first cooking. This is an occasion of surprise to many. But it is a fact that the raw fish is cooked for the first time in a tightly sealed can. The tempera- ture is about 212 degrees. After being about an hour in this temperature the cans are rolled out and the top of each can is punctured by striking it with a mallet which has a steel point in its face. The oil and steam spurt out and there is many a merry little fountain. As soon as the fountains cease this second hole is plugged with soider and the cans rolled into the retort, a thing looking something like a boiler except that the whole end opens to admit the cans. Just before going into the retort the cans are tested again in a similar way to that described. In the retort the salmon gets a second cooking at a temperature of about 240 degrees. When the coolers are taken out of the retort they are washed in a bath of caustic soda, then washed off with fresh water and carted to the cooling floor, where they stand until cool. Then they are tested again, but this time they are tapped with a little steei rod and the sound given forth determines whether the can is tight. Now lacquering comes. This is to keep the can from rusting. Next the label is put on showing the branu of salmon inside. a box with forty-seven mates, shipped by rail or boat. The sockeye is not the oniy salmon | canned. The tyee or spring, the silver, the humpback and the qualah, or “dog,” are also packed. They are all choice food -..u, but the epicurean world has gotten accustomed to looking for the red color in salmon dnd will take noth- ing else. The world needs educating, however, in the salmon line. At the height of the season, when 200 to 300 people are fairly jumping to pack 20,000 to 30,000 fish in a day, the sight about a cannery is an enlivening one. The wages pald are good, unskilled help sometimes at filling alone earning $2 per day. On the other hand, while the construction of a cannery involves an investment of $10,000 to $20,000, the amount of capital to handle ghe product is about $3 per case; helce it may safely be assumed that a cannery that produces 150,000 cases in a season must have a working capital of about $450,- 000. At times fish have come in such num- bers as to be a drug on the market, unsalable at any price whatever, down to two cents a fish, though these times will probably never come again. The writer has seen 4000 fish thrown away | because they could not be handled be- fore they spoiled; has seen fish sold at two cents and has seen the same kind of fish sold at 25 cents each. years there is a rare profit in the busi- ness of canning salmon; other years the balance is on the other side of the ledger. - The sportsman will sigh as he thinks of the millions of salmon caught for commercial purposes with no regard for his feelings. Well, all salmon are not to be tempted into taking a bait of any kind, but some of the most royal sport to be found the world over is here on Puget Spund at certain seasons of the year. The steelhead salmon, which is doubtless an ocean trout and not a sal- mon at all, is now running and will be caught in nets during the next two months. Probably this fish might be allured into taking a bait, but the wet winter months do not tempt sportsmen out for experiments. The steelhead is the great shipping fish for winter and commanded during the latter days of December 25 cents a pound wholesale in New York City. The spring salmon will follow the steelhead in March and will be caught Then the can | is wrapped in tissue paper, then put in | and | Some | as late as August. This fish sometimes reaches 76 pounds in weight. It does not take a balt. The sockeye salmon will come in July and run in countless schools. It will weigh six or seven pounds. Neither does it take a bait, and in fact few men can tell what it lives on, for nothing is found in its stomach when caught. In September and October the silver salmon come, and every second year the humpbacks come with them or shortly _after, and then follow the qualah or ‘“dog” salmon. But the silver salmon is the sports- men’s delight. He will weigh from ten to fifteen pounds and is generally caught with a trolling spoon; some- times on a light rod. He who gets a silver on a seven-ounce rod has more business to the square inch on hand than he often finds. This fall out of a school of silver salmon within a few miles of this city 60,000 fish were taken in nets. The sportsman who trollgd among that same school took—well, Ya whole boatload, for they didn't count them. It has been stated that less than 2 per cent of the eggs of a female salmon develop and mature as salmon. By artificial propagation over 98 per cent of the eggs reach the stage of young salmon. It is therefore to the present hatcheries and to the proposed large increase in the number of hatcheries, that the State of Washington looks for the perpetuation of her ifnportant sal- mon industry. M. BELL. 4000 SALMON. ON_AScows” U j§oolojofolofoJoXofoloJoJoyoJoJooJolofooJoJoJoXozoXoXoXoXoKoJoXoXoXoloNoXoFo Yoo Yo RbYoYo Yoo XoYoXo Yool i i PEEEEEEEEPONPCEORO 8T Millionaire Lipton's Three Great Ambitions Special to The Sunday Call. ONDON, Jan. 2—Sir Thomas Lipton, the “most astonishing citizen of London,” has planned to do three astonishing things during the year 1899. First—To found the Alexandra trust; cost, $1,000,000. Second—To win the America cup; | cost $300,000. Third—To gain a British peerage. The first is a plan of\pracucal phil- | anthropy, the second is in the spirit of ‘?good natured international rivalry for yacht sailing championship, and the elevation to the British peerage is an (honor which probably awaits Sir { Thomas as a reward at the hand of | Queen Victoria if his boat shows her heels to the American sailors, and Brit- ish supremacy is thus again estab- lished. Sir Thomas’ motto is, “The Lipton flag never has been hoisted in vain,” and he firmly expects to carry out his three plans. 2 | Reward of Charity. When the Queen’s jubilee dinner for the London poor was in danger of fall- ing through by the penuriousness of the English public, Thomas Lipton came- forward and gave £25,000, and thus made it possible for the committee to feed 110,000 of the poor of London. For that and other charities he was knight- ed, and then last summer he announced that he was ready to give half a mii- lion of dollars in the starting of the Alexandra trust for furnishing cheap and good meals to the poor, and had another $500,000 to add to the fund if the system proves a success. Its pa- tronesses is the Princess of Wales, a good person to know when one wishes to be a peer—and the trust was named in her honor. The Alexandra scheme is much along the line of the soup kitchens which have proved such a suc- cess in Vienna, but Mr. Lipton's wide business experience has suggested a great many details which will be new in such movements. He has given much sympathetic attention in the past to the fare of the lower classes, and says it is not only of poor quality, bad- 1y cooked and untidily served, but costs too much to those who can 111 afford it. All of these faults he plans to remedy by a good bowl of soup, or bread or halfpenny. For twopence a fair meal meat, well cooked and served for a, the British Peerage. can be bought, the diner having be- yond this a considerable range in price and selection. This is the object of the Alexandra trust. So soon as the necessary charter is secured a large dining establishment will be opened in the poorest quarter of the city, and other places of the kind will follow so soon as it is shown that the plan is a success. Sir Thomas de- signs to make the institution eventu- ally self-supporting by the purchase of property in several places about town. And he is quite business man enough to'do it. Small Fish Dealers Opposition to the Alexandra trust has developed from the keepers of small fish shops'and coffee houses, who say they will be driven out of business if Lipton enters the field. They have been memorializing the committee on charters asking that a permit be not granted, and their union is making ready to present their side of the matter before Parliament when it meets in February. These small vic- tualers claim that food in London is cheap enough for anybody already, and that lowering the price of living will simply mean that the present number of loafers about the public houses will be immensely multipled. Lipton is not discouraged by the op- position aroused, and says that the plan will prove a public blessing if once tried, and this view is shared by the Princess of Wales, the Duke of Norfolk and Sir Francis Jeune, who are associated with the promoter of the enterprise. There is little doubt that the royal charter will be granted, and that the interesting experiment will be inaugurated next year. Plan to Beat the Yankees, By a little dinner party held in the Savoy Hotel a few nights ago, the building plans for the Irish vyacht, Shamrock, were finally discussed and agreed upon, and the keel of the trim racer will now shortly be laid in the Harland & Wolff yards at Belfast. Her plans have been approved, but just what those plans call for is known only by a select coterie, ,who after dinner at the Savoy turned all of the waiters out of the room, locked the doors and held a star chamber session to g0 over the plans again and give the final building orders. Those present were Sir Thomas Lipton, owner of the Shamrock that is to be; William Fife Jr., the designer; ‘W. J. Pirrie, director of the Harland & ‘Wolff shipyard; Hugh McGildowney, the Belfast yachtsman; Baron Russell, Lord Chief Justice of England, and his son, Charles Russell. “England and Scotland have both | fought for the America cup, but Ireland | never,” said Sir Thomas, when, after | due persuasion, he was prevailed upon to talk for publication on his Shamrock hopes. “I have been a member of the Royal Ulster Yacht Club for some years, and as one whose parents belong to the north of Ireland, though I was | born in Glasrow, 1 have long had a notion of sénding an Irish challenge for the cup, but one thing or another in the past has prevented me putting it into execution. Over ten years ago I went so far as to make an offer through Hon. W. J. Lane of the New York Life Company, then a member of Parlia- ment for Cork, to race for the America cup, providing I could get a yacht de- signed, built and manned by Irishmen, but the matter fell through. “What I have always aimed at has been a challenge from an Irish yacht club, by an Irish built boat, by an Irish designer, sailed by an Irish skipper and crew and bearing, I need hardly say, an Irish name, All these sentials, with the exception of the designer, will be fulfilled when; the new Shamrock meets her American rival Will Spend a Fortune. “I do not wish to speak boastfully, but I am prepared to spend £50,000 to £60,000 to lift that cup. But money is not the only consideration, as brains are needed. “It was only after careful considera- tion that we decided to give the dsign- ing order to Mr. Fife, whom we have every confidence in, and he-thinks he can justify it. Fife believes that hith- erto, the best boat has won in the cup contests,” said Mr. Lipton. An Irishman for Captain. Captain William O'Neill will skip- per the new boat. He comes of a seafaring family and is counted the smartest sailing master along the Irish coasts, although his initial races on the Thames in 1874 went against him, and he wanted tn-leave his command after the first defeat. Then his luck changed, and for a half dozen years he kept his boat, the Myosotis, at the head of the winning 1i Since then he has al- most steadily kept first place with what- ever boat he has been engaged to cap- tain, winning thirty prizes In a single season with the Annasona, a Fife cut- ter. *I have laid down no new conditions as to the race, but will leave all ar- rangéments to the holders of the cup,” continued Mr. Lipton. *“I know the 'To Found .the Greatest Charity Organization in the Worlid, to Beat the “Yankees” | in the Next International Yacht Race and to Gain a Place in SPENDING FORTUNES AND WORKING DAY AND NIGHT TO ATTAIN THE THREE OBJECTS. States well, and a fairer or more sports- manlike boedy of men never lived than | American yachtsmen. I am sure I | shall get fair play from them, as I | know of no place where a Britisher can g0 where he will receive more true | kindness or be better treated than at | the hands of our American cousins.” | Worth $20,000.000, Twenty millions of dollars is what the | Lipton fortune is accounted at present, |and this is being added to rapidly by | the receipts which daily roll into the counting house in City Road from the {immense provision business of the com- | pany around the world. As one looks |over the large and beautiful room | where scores of clerks and typewriters 1are at work on the corporation’s ac- | counts he sees a little of the perfection |in the immense system which makes | to-day’s quotation of the “Lipton, Lim- ited,” stock on the exchange sell at | nearly two and ne-half times above | par. Sir Thomas insists that in every | department of his mighty business an- tiquated English methods be cast aside | and down-to-date American ways of doing business alone be employed, which accounts in large part for his being able to spend a million or two offhand, as he is doing in his yacht and Alexandra enterprises. Mr. Lipton takes a few hundred of hig employes now and again out to Osidge, his beautiful country residence at Old Southgate, where he invites them to take full poss on of the place in the holiday he gives them. The American and British flags in the decorations al- ways tell that the host is an Anglo- | American. He likes fast horses as well as a swift business‘and daily drives a 4 speedy span imported from Kentucky over the ten miles between his country home and city offices. And all this char pride of the Bri er in championing British seamanship, this tremendous | activity in making friends with royalty, this genius for money getting, is lead- | ing straight toward the greatest of all of Lipton’s plans—the elevation to the peerage. I suggested the rumors about | his possible elevation to him the other day, but, of course, he wisely professes never to have dreamed of such a thing, EDWARD PAGE GASTON. —_— c————— Bohemian geese which are driven long distances to market are shod before start- ing on the journey by being sent repeat- edly ovér patches of tar mixed with sand. This forms a hard crust on the feet, en~ abling the geese to travel over great dis- tances. this touching the