148 MADRAS FISHERIES BULLETIN VOL. XIII, 



favourable, since the small factories are very numerous and close 

 together, while in the neighbourhood of Malpe the catches with 

 the rampani net are often enormous. 



2. No definite estimate can be framed of the catches since 

 " Fisheries " have no statistical staff ; the only figures at present 

 available are those of the fish-curing yards and these merely show 

 the weights received in those yards for curing with duty-free salt; 

 the masses of fish sold fresh or turned into oil and guano are no- 

 where recorded. An estimate or rather guess in one of the bulletins 

 mentions 100,000 tons as the possible aggregate of catches, but 

 nothing definite is known. Perhaps the best proof of abundance 

 is that within seven years from the establishment of the first 

 (Fisheries) press in 1908, above 250 small private factories followed 

 suit and were at work along the whole length of the Malabar and 

 South Kanara coast. There are now (1920) over 600, many, however, 

 being very petty and open to serious objection as will be shown 

 below. 



Moreover, during the year 1919-20 it is known that some 20,000 

 tons of " fish-guano " (dried " scrap ") have been exported and sent 

 to planters and others ; a single merchant bought 12,000 tons. 

 Since, in round figures, I ton of dry fish-guano represents 5 tons 

 of fresh fish, the above quantity would represent 100,000 tons, to 

 which must be added vast quantities of fish consumed, fresh or 

 dried, as edibles, and other vast quantities dried whole on the 

 beach as fertilizer. Hence in a good year the catches may easily 

 run above 150,000 tons on the Madras West Coast alone. 



3. The important question whether large factories can be 

 established in preference to or alongside of the petty factories just 

 mentioned will be discussed after a full description of the condi- 

 tions of the fishery, from which the answer will be deducible. It 

 may be said, however, at once that at present the conditions are 

 unfavourable for large factories. Hence, while describing the 

 methods of advanced and large factories in order to present the 

 results of enterprise and capital as examples of method towards 

 which work should tend, the small factory, its needs, present 

 methods, and the improvements immediately possible and desirable, 

 will mainly be kept in view. 



USES OF FISH OIL AND GUANO. 



4. Oil. — The oil from sardines, like that from Japanese "iwashi," 

 menhaden, pilchard, and herring, is made from the body of the 



