No. 3 (1921) MANUFACTURE OF FISH OiL AND GUANO Mf 



If the price were in the neighbourhood of Rs. 85 per ton in bags on 

 the West Coast, it could now be used by the average cultivators, but even 

 this price can only be paid because the prices of food-grains are at present 

 abnormally high. 



Until the propaganda of the Agricultural Department has succeeded in 

 teaching the cultivator the value of this form of manure, the price should 

 be kept as low as possible, since he naturally looks askance at paying a 

 high price for a fertilizer about which he knows little or nothing. 



P'or example, at the new Cambodia Cotton Station at Anamalai a 

 start was made without any stock of manure or fodder, and, as a prelimi- 

 nary step, 18 acres of fodder cholam manured with 5 cwt. of fish guano per 

 acre are being grown. This crop has already attracted so much attention 

 from passers-by, that the Farm Manager has had requests from neighbour- 

 ing farmers to purchase for them over 12 tons of this manure. The price 

 delivered is approximately Rs. 5 per cwt. and it would have been 

 impossible to advertise a manure at this price without such a demonstration 

 crop. 



The total quantities of fish manures available each year are strictly 

 limited and quite insufficient to meet the manurial demands of the country; 

 hence this material comes with'n our definition of an illegitimate export, 

 as there is never any surplus which could not be used for developing the 

 resources of the country. 



The first effect of prohibiting the export of fish manures will be to 

 bring down their price. Inquiries into the trade show that this will reduce 

 the profit of the middleman, and will not seriously affect the actual 

 producers. It is to be expected that, as the internal demand increases as 

 a result of a wider knowledge of the value of this manure, the price will be 

 steadied, and the present gambling in fish manures will be stopped. 



That there is a demand for Bsh manures and that this demand will 

 increase as knowledge of their value increasss, is shown by the fact that in 

 the Kasaragod taluk of the South Kanara district the value of fish as a 

 manure for tobacco is already thoroughly understood, and so great is the 

 demand during the period when this crop is manured, that no guano at all 

 is manufactured on this part of the coast. The whole catch of fish is sold 

 to petty cultivators direct from the fishing boats." 



153. On the other hand Dr. Slater wrote as follows : — 



" With regard to the proposal to prohibit the export of fish manure, 



I think this question should be looked at from the point of view of the 



fishing industry as well as of agriculture. It appears to me that the fishing 



industry is capable of enormous extension, and that with regard to all 



