60 MADRAS FISHERIES BULLETIN VOL. XIII, 



(8) a store room for the several condiments, etc., required in 

 packing and specially for salt ; 



(9) a room for storing tin plate, solder, empty cans, lids and 

 other can-making stores ; 



(10) a miscellaneous store-room ; 



(11) fuel shed for coal, wood, and charcoal; 



(12) a small boiling pan, etc., for dealing with guts and debris 

 from fish for manurial purposes, with store shed; 



(13) office quarters ; 



A laboratory for testing spoils, examining the oils supplied, 

 etc., is of course desirable, but at present is hardly possible under 

 Indian conditions. 



48. (l) The gutting, etc., shed.— AW fish require gutting and brining 

 the moment they arrive at the yard, especially in India where no 

 such operations are conducted on the boats. This is necessarily 

 an uncleanly business and the shed must be not only open and 

 airy but of such impervious material that it can be sluiced conti- 

 nually with clean water and disinfectant ; the water should belaid 

 on, both for this purpose and for washing the fish. The gutting 

 tables may be made of stout, hard, seasoned wood, since such 

 wood does not admit of much soakage and can readily be scraped 

 and scrubbed ; those at the Government Cannery have been in use 

 for some years and are perfectly sweet and clean. It is well to 

 have them of wood, since in gutting fish such as mackerel they 

 must be decapitated by the knife and not by scissors ; stone or 

 metal would destroy the knife edges. Metal pails are necessary 

 for receiving heads and guts and removal to the manure shed or 

 pits. The washing vats or tubs may be two or more masonry 

 cisterns with water laid on, one being in use while the other is 

 being emptied and refilled with clean water. Good drains, pre- 

 ferably open and of semi-circular section to avoid accumulation of 

 foul matter, are essential to carry off foul water from floor and 

 washing tubs. The brining tubs may be of good wood (half 

 barrels), with spigot and faucet. The shed may be a few yards 

 from the other sheds. 



49. (2) Drying ground. — After gutting and brining sardines are 

 placed upon grilles, and other fish on network trays made of 

 uniform size, in the brining room and thence removed for drying, 

 which, in India, is usually in the open air and sun. It is con- 

 venient to hang the grilles from a scaffold since the warm air 



