i6 



on the vendor's hands, while, on the other hand, if he 

 does not keep a good stock he will be unable to meet 

 calls and will disappoint would-be customers. A market 

 like Madras might be easily supplied, but those of 

 provincial towns would be risky unless a set of customers 

 or a regular trade connection has been obtained. 



The experiments have been quite successful so far as 

 they have gone but will be carried on next season ; the 

 split fish are either salted or placed in saturated brine 

 for a short period, drained, and smoked ; the product is 

 quite excellent and has delighted customers, to whom the 

 method supplies fish not indeed fresh but only slightly 

 cured. Full details will be published in my manual. 



II. Sardines as pilchards. — In a letter read in G.O. 

 No. 2267, Revenue, dated 17th August 1908, and 

 elsewhere, e.g., in my book on the '' Preservation and 

 Cure of Fish ", I mentioned the great wastefulness 

 shown by the improper or defective utilisation of the 

 immense catches of sardine on the West Coast, viz., by 

 drying the fish on the beach and sending them away as 

 very imperfect manure — largely consisting of coagulated 

 oil and sand — to Ceylon, etc., and I proposed to try and 

 utilize them more fully as food. I have since ascertained 

 that the catches are much larger than I thought, perhaps 

 100,000 tons in an ordinary season between September 

 and April ; a single supplier at a single port supplied 

 last year to a single merchant 600 tons of dried sardine, 

 representing perhaps 1,500 tons of fresh fish, to be sent 

 as manure to coffee estates. This manure, as prepared 

 by the common fisherman, is generally of the poorest 

 quality, frequently so devoured by maggots, weevils, etc., 

 that little but scales and bone are left ; the smell of the 

 beaches shows how much nitrogen is wasted. Only a 

 fraction of the fish is turned into food, and much of this 

 is simply dried without salt and sent away in tainted 

 masses as food to our East Coast. That which is gutted 

 is, in order to save time, so wastefully treated that 1,000 

 lb. of round ungutted fish yield just 500 lb. of gutted 

 fish, the heads and guts being frequently thrown away, 

 though sometimes used as manure. 



The chief reason why this excellent fish is thus 

 misused is the necessity for great haste if cured. 

 The fish when caught are thrown into the boat which 

 waits till it has a full load, perhaps for some hours in 



