Eat more fish

Introduction

The writer, who is a salmon canner, was formerly secretary of the Puget Sound Salmon Canners Association and Association of Alaska Salmon Packers; is the author of various pamphlets on salmon, and has made hundreds of stereopticon views of the great fisheries; he is sole owner of Crawford's Motion Pictures, "The Story of the Salmon — The Great Fishing Fleet in Action"; he has given a great deal of time to educational work, believing that the people — especially the schools — should be shown and made acquainted with the wonderful food value of fish — and the great fishing industry.

In order to further educate the people he has compiled this book, "Eat More Fish," which gives more information about fish than has ever been published before, in this form, as well as much valuable information for the housewife, and all the people; also many tested and economical recipes.

This book, "Eat More Fish," is dedicated to the conserving of food and with the hope that it will make for a better and stronger people, for we believe a patriotic spirit, health, strength, a vigorous mind and body are man's best heritage for his posterity, all of which will be more likely if he "Eat More Fish."

W. I. CRAWFORD,

Seattle.

THIS BOOK CONTAINS

Over 100 recipes for preparing canned salmon alone, with name and address of originators of 50 as well as 50 from the U. S. Bureau of Fisheries, Official Bulletin No. 11, as well as many other recipes authorized by the Federal Bureau, Naval Marine Service, etc.

Information about canned salmon, grades and labels, how to tell if fish is good or bad, miscellaneous useful information for the housewife, special recipes covering other lines of food products, etc., etc.

A Vision — ^Alaska King Salmon

Salmon Cannery Should Be as Clean as a Home Kitchen.

Cannery Operated by Mr. Crawford, Showing Hand Fillers.

Copyright

\V. I. CRAWFORD

Publisher

Box 283, Seattle

Cannery Operated by Mr. Crawford, Showing Machine Line and General Interior — Old Style Processing.

BAT MORE FISH

FARMING THE SEA

By W. I. CRAWFORD Seattle

(Published in the Westerner, February, 1913)

The tiller of the soil, at the cost of much study and money, and incessant labor, must put back into the ground, every year, besides his annual planting of seed, a large percentage of that which he takes from it in crops. If he does not, within a shoi't time he has impoverished his land, and the gradual diminishing and final failure of crops is his inevitable and direful result. He must plow and harrow and test and fertilize and cultivate year in, year out, without end, in order to reap an average crop — to "hold his ground" with the product of the years before.

But the "farmer" of the sea — the fisherman — he neither fertilizes the waters nor cultivates them; he thinks not of nitrates nor phosphates, nor lime nor legumes, and he does but reap, reap, every year an ever-increasing crop of fish; reaps and packs, reaps and packs the world's food of fish, that has built for our country a growing mountain of wealth. In recent years, the friend of the farmer of the sea, the states and federal government, has perfected the method of planting the fish, that the fisherman may not only continue to reap a normal harvest, but an ever-increasing harvest; and he has no concern with the growth and development of the seed that is planted, for he knows that the sea, which has sustenance for all the life that can find room within it, will take care of that.

The resources of the sea pass all human understanding, but today we begin faintly to realize that they are inexhaustible. Mention of the unequaled fishing industry of the Pacific Coast to most people means Salmon. Their thoughts on the subject seldom include the vast wealth of other varieties of food fish taken on our Pacific Ocean shores. Yet the details of the wonderful story of this peculiar, plentiful and palatable pink- and lightfleshed product of our Pacific waters are far from being realized even by those who know it to be a wonderful story.

Our salmon industry began somewhat less than fifty years ago, and five hundred millions of dollars will not pay for the total salmon pack of the years that have followed, and another hundred million for fish salted, mild cured, kippered, pickled, etc. (The pack of salmon the first year of record amounted to about 8,000 cases, and leaping yearly by the tens of thousands of cases, the tremendous expansion of the industry is indicated by the pack of 10,000,000 cases for the year 1918. These figures concern entirely the salmon packed in tins — canned salmon.) Millions and millions of dollars additional are represented in the fish of that one tribe alone which were caught and consumed in other ways.

Roughly, the fish of all kinds taken from our Pacific Coast waters, from California to Alaska, have approximated a yearly value of fifty millions of dollars for the past ten years, and the salmon has represented $40,000,000 of that huge annual pile of wealth. Yet this tremendous total will be greatly augmented in future annual fish reports for the Pacific Coast, because of the addition of many new salmon canneries and the enlargement of the capacities of most of the old ones. This means the increasing of the fishing fleets and the facilities for catching the salmon, to say nothing of the installation of much modern machinery. «

Some idea of the existing size 2of'ttie salmon packing industry will be had from the following statement bf« tjie cost of maintaining it: In one year the salmon industry for labor, approximately $9,000,000; fish, $9,000,- 000; cans, solder, acid, etc., $7,000,000; general and overhead expenses, taxes, etc., $5,000,000; cannery fleet, $4,300,000; transportation, $1,900,000; boxes, $1,000,000; insurance, storage, $500,000; labels, $400,000; lacquer, $300,- 000; fuel, light and power, $500,000; supplies, $600,000.

Besides supplying the world with one of its most popular food staples, and one which analysis shows to contain almost fifty per cent more nourishment than sirloin steak at less cost, the great fishing industiT constitutes a regular market for the Pacific Coast farmer and grocer to the extent of $3,000,000 a year, a market which will not only be permanent, but progressive with the growth of the industry. The tiller of the soil on the Pacific Coast, and especially the farmer in the Pacific Northwest, owes a co-operative duty to his brother who farms the sea. and he certainly should avail himself of every possible piece of information relating to the sea industry from which he derives such great benefits.

SUPPLY DIMINISHING

It is a common habit of mind to regard the business of fishing as a diminishing industry, and people look forward to the time when fish will be missing from the daily menus, much as they think of the disappearing forests and seals, and many expect, when they read of the enormous number of fish caught in the North Pacific waters each year, that before long the fish will have gone from the earth like the buffalo from our plains, with perhaps a few weakly denatured specimens preserved with great difficulty in our more pretentious aquariums.

Which will be the result unless wise and maybe drastic laws are made and enforced for the protection and conservation of all the species of salmon. It is only a matter of time until all food fish will have to be protected in order that the future supply may be assured.

When the fish swam in wild and unexplored rivers, lakes and streams, and the Indians were the only inhabitants of this territory, nature provided for the natural reproduction and maintenance of the fish. But with the advent of the white race, the establishment of commerce and the conveniences and facilities of a higher standard of civilization, with all its tendency of good as well as evil, out of necessity, these things were destructive to the fish of our streams, where man has built sewers, great power dams, saw mills, irrigation canals and other improvements interfering with the progress of the salmon and other fish as they made their way up these streams toward their natural spawning grounds.

The salmon come in from the ocean and go into the different fresh water streams for the purpose of spawning. The spring, chinook or king, which is the largest of the salmon, often weighing over 60 pounds, only enter large rivers for the purpose of spawning. They climb up and up until the headwaters are reached, often jumping sevei'al feet over riffles and rocks.

The blueback red or sockeye salmon, which averages about six pounds in weight, rarely enters any river which does not rise in snow-fed lakes.

The pink or humpback is the smallest of the salmon and for spawning purposes enters only the small streams, lagoons, etc. Sometimes they spawn but a short distance from the ocean.

The coho or silver salmon run in the spring, fall and early winter, when the waters are high. They usually seek the large rivers, but are not so persistent as the spring salmon in reaching the headwaters for spawning.

Chum salmon usually run in the shallow streams, spawning in any place in fresh water where they find lodgment for the eggs or spawn.

There was a time Avhen the salmon came in from tbe sea to spawn in such numbers as to form an almost compact mass filling the stream; they floundered up the shallows of the* freshwater stream, surmounted the falls by leaps that were miraculou9«*nej/er pausing, never turning, and hurrying at the utmost speed on their :pi^ity errand.

In spawning, the male salmon, sometimes the female, will, with tail or fins, excavate a small hollow place in the gravel or sand, into which the female will deposit the eggs or spawn. Immediately, or shortly, after the spawn is deposited by the female, the male fish will cover the eggs and deposit thereon its milt or spermatic fluid (resembling ordinary milk in apearance), which is absorbed by the eggs, fertilizing them and at the same time hardening them. The fresh, cool water running continuously over the eggs will hatch them out In 50 to 60 days, depending upon the temperature of the water.

The king or spring salmon deposits from 2,000 to 6,000 eggs, depending upon its weight; the sockeye averages about 1,200; the humpback about 400; the coho or silver salmon about 2,000, and the chum possibly about 2,000 eggs each, while the steelhead will deposit 3,500 or more eggs at a time.

ARTIFICIAL PROPAGATION

As stated above owing to the many power dams and other improvements which act as impediments to the spawning salmon, because they prevent them from reaching their natural spawning grounds, science has hit upon a way artificially to propagate or hatch this fish — the method really amounts to the assistance of nature in such a way as to immensely increase the certainty of the yield, and insures the supply required by the demands of commerce, not only maintaining the supply, but enormously increasing it, as is evidenced by the increasing yearly pack where it has been tried.

The salmon are taken with a net or caught in an impounding trap, where they are held until they are what is termed "ripe" or ready to spawn. The operator or fish catcher will take the female salmon and kill it. Immediately he cuts it open, stripping it of its eggs or spawn, which are placed in a pail. Then the male fish is taken up and the milt extracted by pressure and poured over the eggs, fertilizing them practically the same as by nature. This process is repeated upon other fish until the pail, holding 25,000 or 30,000 eggs, is full. The eggs are allowed to stand for about 40 minutes, when they become separated from each other. All dead eggs are washed out and thrown away, the balance being put into the hatchery troughs and set in the running water on the hatchery floor.

REARING PONDS

Rearing ponds are now being used to retain the small salmon, feeding them until they are strong and better able to protect themselves from their natural enemies in the streams. This improvement in salmon propagation insures the future increase in numbers of that fish. When released the small salmon in due time seek the ocean, where, so far as we know, the spring salmon remains from four to five years, the sockeye three to four years, and possibly five years, the humpback two years and the other species two to four years, when they return to spawn in the streams or waters in which they were propagated. It is estimated that in the natural spawning of the salmon as much as eighty per cent of the spawn and small salmon are consumed by their enemies. Hence but twenty per cent ever reach the ocean, while under artificial propagation it is possible to save 60 to 80 per cent of the fry. and with the rearing pond system, possibly 90 per cent will safely reach the ocean. It is now a well authenticated fact that the spring or chinook salmon and also the sockeye, which have ascended the rivers a long way from the ocean, after spawning die, never returning to the ocean.

Strange as it may seem, the salmon business is one industry that is perpetuating itself without any cost or expense to the state or people at large. The entire expense of building, maintaining and operating the fish hatcheries, salaries of the fish wardens, patrol service, etc., is paid by the fisheries interests in taxes, license fees, etc.

FOOD VALUE OF SALMON By W. I. CRAWFORD

(From Trade Register, 1913) PART IV

CANNED SALMON— ITS NUTRITIVE FOOD VALUE

The Federal Government has published reports covering food values of many kinds of fish, which makes it possible for the writer to furnish much of the following.

INVESTIGATION

Just now the subject of the high cost of living, food values, and so forth, is a live one, and possibly as little understood as any other.

Investigation has shown that fifty years ago, when canned salmon was first put on the market, or when the salmon industry was first established, it was impossible to determine the food value, or the combination of food materials, especially of fish and meat.

The chemistry of food materials was practically unknown until about the year 1880, when it was discovered that by chemical analysis the composition of food materials could be determined.

FOOD VALUES

It is not our purpose to write a scientific treatise on the subject of food values, but to briefly state some facts regarding the food value of Canned Salmon, which applies equally to other food fish.

Over four thousand (4,000) separate analyses of foods gathered from different parts of this country have been made by the United States government, the results of which are now available, and prove conclusively that the relative protein and nutritive value of foods can be determined, and that fish stands high in its nutritive or food value as compared with other meats.

CHEMICAL COMPOSITION

The chemical substances of which the body is composed are very similar to those of the foods which maintain it. They are made of the same chemical elements, and for that reason in this article are all classed, or discussed together.

From fifteen to twenty elements are found in the body, most abundant of which are oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen, calcium, phosphorous, and sulphur. These elements are so combined as to form a great variety of compounds in both the body and the food.

In the food, as well as in the body, the most important kinds of compounds are photein, fat, carbohydrates, mineral matter and water. The functions of these elements are to repair and rebuild tissues of the body, to supply it with heat and muscular energy. Water makes up about 60 per cent of the weight of the body and enters into all the tissues; 5 to 6 per cent of the body is composed of mineral ash, or waste matter, which supplies little, if any, nutriment, yet is a very important factor in the body.

PROTEIN

Protein is a term used to describe that element of the body which includes the principal nitrogenous compounds, so familiar to us, as the gluten of wheat, and especially is it prominent in canned salmon.

Protein Is the principal tissue former of the protein compounds, making up fully 18 per cent of the weight of the body; supplying the albumenoids of the blood, milk, and other fluids; building up and repairing the nitrogenous factors, such as muscles and tendons. Protein is a flesh former, and its compounds consists of the belatinoides and almumenoids, which classed together are termed "proteids," and are so known to the medical profession.

All authorities agree that they are the most important constituents of our food, being the basis of bone, muscle, energy, and the tissues, and essential to bodily structure.

FAT

Fat, as found to exist in fish, cream, butter, and many of the vegetables and cereals, supplies the body with the constituents wlfxeh, in a sense, are burned in order to furnish heat and energy.

The body fat varies greatly with the food, exercise, age and other individual conditions of the particular person. It is a fact that when more food of this character than is necessary to be taken, the fat will be stored in the body, and in combination with the protein becomes body protein and body fat, which, when the food supply is short, is drawn upon to supply heat and energy, as well as strength. About 15 per cent of the weight of the body is usually body fat.

Less than 1 per cent of the weight, or proportion, of the body is composed of the carbohydrates, which are generally found in sugars, vegetables, cereals, grains, and potatoes, the larger part of each being transformed into fat in the body. However, sugar and starch are abundant in ordinary foods, and are important factors in the body on account of being easily digested and furnishing a great source of energy.

WASTE

Much of the foods we buy in the market is waste, such as shells of eggs, bone, gristle, etc., and are generally thrown away. Yet all these contain the same elements in different proportion as does the food which we eat, and if properly prepared much of it would make good food. A great many times splendid food is classed as waste, or refuse, simply because the flavor, or taste, is objectionable.

All the organs of the body, all tissues, muscles, the brain, the flesh, the bones, skin and veins, are built up of the nutritive, elements, and particularly of protein. It is a scientific fact that every motion, movement, or suggestion of the brain or body consumes some material which some other factor of the body must supply with material to repair, rebuild or make up.

The foregoing synopsis, or outline, pertaining to the elements and substances which go to make up and sustain the body, as shown by actual test reported by the government, is given here in order that the reader may realize the fact that nutriment and strength may be had by an intelligent and proper understanding of the food materials which he eats.

It is stated that sickness causes 42 per cent of the poverty in the United States. Therefore, it is only natural that we ask what is the remedy, and our answer would be based on the following:

If practical demonstration of food values, and education along these lines, were made compulsory in our schools, the rising generation would know what to feed the body, the kind of food necessary to supply the elements needed in order to eliminate sickness, and to rebuild, repair and sustain the body.

The writer believes success, prosperity, happiness, and health do not depend upon the power of or accumulation of gold, but rather upon the successful pursuit of one's profession (scientific), common sense in feeding the body, for the same beneficent Creator who makes the sea, the fish therein, the earth and its fruits, also made man, and it should be man's highest aim to accomplish more and increasing good each day, to honestly acquire and accumulate money, property and influence in order that he might more readily achieve his purpose in life. And that doing these, he must flrst know himself and learn that health, strength, a vigorous mind and body, and a pure life, are the best heritage for his posterity.

The above being true, we feel that we are only doing our part in this great plan for conserving food and making for a better and stronger people when we tell the story of fish, its nutritive values, the sanitary process of preparing it for the table.