154 MADRAS FISHERIES BULLETIN VOL. XIII, 



factory, cooked and pressed at night, and the guano artificially 

 dried and stored during the following day. Factories are provided 

 with plant of the most modern type, and are capable, in the 

 largest size, of completely dealing with 2/^ million fish weighing 

 approximately 750 tons (of 2,240 lb.) per day, and employing 200 

 hands ; an ordinary factory will deal with about one-fourth of this 

 quantity. 



12. As mentioned above the fish are caught usually in the 

 morning, in huge purse seines, loaded at once on steamers or motor 

 boats and taken to the factory during the afternoon. The factory 

 is usually built where deep water enables the steamers to run 

 alongside, or else a pier is provided ; the fish are then transferred 

 to the factory premises either in large tubs or boxes of a given size 

 (old plan) or direct by an elevator one end of which is lowered 

 into the vessel's hold (new plan) ; they are then passed through a 

 machine which weighs or measures the amount of fish ; thence by 

 a conveyor they pass either to the " raw boxes " (fish bins) or 

 direct to the steam cookers whether vats or a continuous cooker; 

 from the cookers Ihey are removed either by hand or by another 

 conveyor to the presses which are either hydraulic or continuous 

 after the fashion of an Anderson oil expeller ; the mixed oil and 

 water passes thence to the various separating tanks, while the 

 pressed material ("scrap ") is taken to the drying ground or to the 

 mechanical drier. 



13. Hence a modern factory consists of the following main 

 items of plant, viz., elevator, weighing machine, conveyors, one or 

 more cookers, presses, and driers, with ample storage and arrange- 

 ments for complete cleanliness and for minimizing the nuisance 

 which is, to a certain extent, necessary when animal matters are 

 dealt with in huge bulk for reduction to fertilizer. The pre-war 

 cost of the mere plant (exclusive of buildings) of an average 

 modern factory with one steam cooker, two presses, and one drier, 

 and all etceteras such as boilers, engines, conveyors, etc., was said 

 to be Rs. 75,000 and its capacity 200 tons per day. The processes 

 and plant will now be described. 



14. Buildings-— li possible these have two stories in order both 

 to save ground space and to facilitate operations. The building 

 material is frequently of wood but this seems objectionable for 

 reasons of sanitation and risk of fire ; the floors are usually of 

 cement for obvious reasons of cleanliness. The fish bins and 



