6 



has already proved acceptable and will be still more so 

 as the processes develop in the direction of a more 

 lightly cured article. I may add that actual demonstra- 

 tions with kilns and fish and lasting about a fortnight 

 each, were given on the West Coast (Cannanore and 

 Tellicherry) and at Waltair ; at Cannanore the British 

 troops and the Jail have taken up the manufacture, and 

 various Companies and persons have followed suit, 

 especially one Company to whose Principal I showed 

 my first smoked fish (mackerel) in October and whose 

 agents have since inspected the Cannanore and Ennore 

 smoking places. Demands have reached me from 

 Bombay, the United Provinces, the Punjab, etc., and I 

 am now trying to increase my output so as to increase 

 the knowledge of, and demand for, the product and thus 

 prove to private capital that there is a demand which is 

 not only already great but may easily develop up-country 

 to an enormous business. I shall, of course, be only too 

 ready to give up the business if private capital will take 

 it up, as the work of the station is purely experimental, 

 demonstrational, and educational. Experiments are 

 proceeding in the way of providing lightly salted and 

 smoked goods for early consumption, the present goods 

 are intended to keep for some time. 



As sanctioned by G.O. Mis. No. 2980, Revenue, 

 dated 26th October 1908, a small area, perhaps half an 

 acre, of the backwater alongside of the station sheds 

 has been enclosed by post and wire, and a very success- 

 ful first attempt has been made to ascertain the period, 

 cause, duration, and abundance of the fall of oyster 

 spat, to receive it on "collectors," and to ascertain 

 the rate of growth, which, in other countries, would be 

 considered phenomenal ; the best grown young oyster 

 was 5 inches in breadth at less than 2 months old. 

 This gives an idea of the possibilities of oyster culture 

 in our warm and shallow backwaters, and, as already 

 suggested pass i?n (e.g., paras. 42 and 65 of my No. 55 

 of 1908), of supplying countries such as China with their 

 dried flesh, or other countries with oyster extract as 

 prepared in the United States ; this latter product is 

 most nutritious and digestible, and can be put up in 

 tins, jars, etc., and readily exported ; in this way the 

 valuable constituents of hundreds of millions of oysters 

 could be secured as food and a large industry started. 



