246 MADRAS FISHERIES BULLETIN VOL. XIII, 



The Board of Agriculture in their conference at Pusa in Decem- 

 ber 1919 adopted the following resolution, viz : — 



" 8. That as far as bones and fish manure are concerned, total 

 prohibition of export is necessary." 



Fish manure here includes fish guano also. The resolution 

 was not adopted without opposition ; Dr. Mann suggested mere 

 discouragement of export, e.g., by the imposition of an export tax, 

 but the majority accepted the resolution on the ground that the 

 fertility of Indian soils is the primary consideration, and that so 

 long as prices are rendered unduly high by the competition of 

 rubber and tea growers (in Ceylon, the Straits, etc.) the ryot could 

 not afford these manures ; hence their loss to the country which 

 needs them for maintaining its food supply. 



152. The following extracts give the views of the Madras 

 Agricultural Experts Messrs. Anstead, Norris, and Sampson, on the 

 one side, and of Dr. Slater, as a general Economist, and of Mr. 

 V. Govindan as Fisheries officer, on the other. 



After pointing out the causes of soil exhaustion and the absolute 

 necessity for its recuperation as by the use of human excreta and 

 the stoppage of exports of fertilizers, the former pointed out the 

 ryots' difficulties due to ignorance of fertilizer values, to the high 

 prices of such fertilizers owing largely to the competition of high 

 priced products, to the lack of local supplies and of supplying 

 organization, etc., and they wrote as follows: — 



" Illegitimate exports are commodities the export of which lowers 

 the productive capacity of the country, such as, e.g., fish (except for 

 food), whole oil-seeds including co/'ra, poonacs or oil-cakes, bones, horns, 

 and food-grains in general. 



Fls.h. — At the present moment, fish is the cheapest form of nitrogen 

 and phosphoric acid to be obtained in South India, and yet the cultivator, 

 except for special crops like tobacco, is unable to use it on account of the 

 high price caused by exports. The ex-factory price paid by exporters for 

 fish guano since the time of the armistice has risen from Rs. 45 per ton to 

 Rs. TOO, the price quoted in Colombo in February 1919 being Rs. 160 per 

 ton. 



The consequence is that the bulk of this material leaves the country 

 instead of being utilized as a fertilizer to raise the yield of food crops. 



