-1 



9 



The cost of fish is often less than Rs. 1 1 per ton ; 

 depreciation at 5 per cent, is a high allowance on three 

 or four days' use of the simple plant. But if the ex- 

 penses for labour and fuel are 50 per cent higher than 

 as above, which, however, are abstracts in round figures 

 from my register, the rate of profit is surprising. If 

 the outturn in oil be taken as low as 12^ per cent or i^ 

 tons, value Rs. 200, the profit is still remarkable. It 

 will be seen that in any case the oil, hitherto lost, far 

 more than pays all expenses, leaving the guano, at least, 

 as clear profit. 



Fish are, of course, not always procurable as the 

 shoals are very mobile, and the little factories are there- 

 fore partly idle for many days in each month of the 

 season ; this — apart from the socio-economic question — 

 is the reason why small factories, worked by small folk, 

 are preferable to large central factories, the success of 

 which is highly problematical especially in a tropical 

 climate where fish cannot be brought from even moder- 

 ate distances to a central factory without putrefaction 

 setting in. Moreover, in these petty factories, the bulk 

 of the labour is only engaged as needed, so that the 

 running expenses on non-working days are inconsider- 

 able. As repeatedly stated from 1908 onwards, the 

 method advocated is that of hundreds of petty factories, 

 each costing a few hundred rupees, scattered along the 

 coast, producing oil and guano whenever possible, and — 

 until co-operative societies are formed, which is our 

 aim — selling their produce to middlemen who will lump 

 the several parcels, and sell to the consumer practically 

 uniform products under a guarantee of intrinsic value. 

 This postulates middlemen — firms employing agents and 

 dubashes, or well-to-do individuals, etc. — who will take 

 the trouble to perambulate the coast, stimulating the 

 small producer by advice and, if necessary, advances, 

 controllinof their methods and the character of their 

 produce, and concentrating such produce in their own 

 godowns. 



14. In the experimental station the manufacture of 

 oil and guano was also combined with that of edible 

 food from the same individual sardines. The local 

 method of gutting is to push the sardine slantwise 

 against the edge of a knife held in the toes of the 

 operating woman seated on the ground (in our station 



