THE SARDINE.

Evening Star, Issue 14932, 19 July 1912, Page 1

THE SARDINE.

SOME MERITS OF A DELICATE FOOD. An eminent authority on dietetics recalls a street scene in a squaiid South London district on a dismal winter's night, in which a pale-faced young woman is poking a cockle into her yearold baby's mouth with her forefinger, aa she tolls the iish merchant that tho " little 'on tykes to 'em as kindly as her dad does," and is afterwards refreshed by a vegetarian course consisting of a green hard apple, which she. bite;; in half to assist in a more ready digestion on the part of her infant. The cookie cannot he considered an ideal food, but few will dispute the therapeutic value of fish in general, and the sardine in particular, as a most wholesome article of food. Fish, especially at the breakfast tabic, is far lighter to digest, and no less nourishing than flesh, whether in the shape, of bacon or cutlet. Doctors claim that it supplies the necessary amount of phosphorus to both the brain and tho nervous system. Moreover, the more oily species of fish, such as sardines, promotes physical as well as nervous force and bodily warmth, so essential to good health in such a climate as that of Great Britain. It has also many claims as a builder of bone, containing as it does such essential materials as phosphates of lim© and potash. Imagine the insipidity of the. English breakfast unflavored by this delicious fish, whose popularity is growing in all parts of the world. There has been much recent disputation as to the correct definition of '' sardine," but with that the consumer is in no way concerned. On the question of nomenclature naturalists do not recognise a fish called by this name, at all. They assert that the term merely applies to its mode of preparation, which would seem to be the more important achievement. The fish, after being decapitated, are. washed in sea water and dried on wire screens in the open air. The best brands are then immersed in a cauldron of the purest olive oil, which is kept; at boiling heat, and when sufficiently cooked, packed in tin cases, which arc filled with oil and hermetically ••Pill d. They bolor.g_ to the family oi' ■ v.' ■>:>.. .•><•, ..• />...'r,.. wiiltli tii.hrayes tlis young of many larger species. —Large Norwegian Trade.— No country can lay special claim to the cultivation of the. sardine. It is to be found in tho West Indies, Florida, and California, as well as on the western coast oi' the United States. During the past quarter of a century the Norwegian sardine industry has made rapid progress, and the Norwegian smoked sardine has now an import trade represented by nearly a million sterling. It is becoming a keen competitor with tho famous Frencli brand of sardines so called from the island of Sardinia, in tho Mediterranean, whose shores for so manv years have produced such a prolific supply. The sardine varies in size from five to seven inches, and is easily recognised by its orange green coloring. The difference between the French sardine, the English pilchard (Clup.inodon pilohardus). and the Norwegian bristling seems to resolve itself into a question of size. They feed for the most part on minute enistaoeous larval forms and floating fish rgcrs. and spawn very freely during the summer. The onloh during the summer months is usuallv very large, the bulkof whirl. is sold to the canning factories. The sardine fishing is the most important fishing industrv in France, employing T >ioro than -10.0(10 fishermen and many thousand boats, yielding an annual produce valued at many millions of francs. From 15.000 to 20.000 people are employed in the canning factories, which have an annual output of from five to six million boxes.