70 



of the fish and loss of debris ; nor are the fish attacked 

 by insects. Hence salted fish yield larger quantities of 

 better manure than unsalted fish, and they are not injured 

 by rain since they can be stored without putrefaction 

 till the rain ceases. It is found that one hour in salt is a 

 sufficient protection ; the salt actually used up (by absorp- 

 tion and wastage) is about one-twentieth of the weight of 

 the fresh fish or one and one-third maunds per ton and 

 consequently costs at fish curing yard prices (As, lo per 

 maund) about Rs. 4-8-0 per five tons of fresh fish or Rs. 3 

 per ton of dry fish, since five tons of fresh fish thus treated 

 become about i^ tons dry fish. This fish has been 

 analysed and showed 678 per cent of nitrogen, so that 

 it is worth retail at least Rs. 65 as against Rs. 40 per ton 

 of ordinary beach-dried fish. Hence there is not only 

 large pecuniary gain but an economic gain to society in 

 the saving of the nitrogen, etc., which would otherwise 

 have been lost by putrefaction and other causes. 



The cost of artificial drying is much the same, and it 

 found that the fish when dried by strong heat, say 300" 

 F., break up and become like guano ; this part of the 

 experiment will be continued this year in a proper drier 

 now being built for this purpose and for drying the press 

 cakes rapidly and without loss, 



9, Curing. — The method of lightly salting sardines 

 just as they come from the beach, without gutt'ng, has 

 been practised for several years in the station ; the fish 

 were usually left moist though not in pickle, as fat 

 sardines do not dry well. But the lean sardines of this 

 year, lightly salted and dried for manurial purpose (para- 

 graph 12 supra), were perfectly good for edible purposes 

 as had been shown in previous years, e,g,, paragraph 9 

 of the report for 1911-12. Hence we now place our 

 lean, ungutted sardines in salt for one hour, using up less 

 than one-sixteenth of their weight of salt, and then dry 

 them on barbecues, etc., into sound edible fish — experto 

 credite — with absolutely no trace of taint, while the fish, 

 shown by analysis to contain about 9 per cent of salt, 

 remain good indefinitely. I have bought these fish fresh 

 on the beach at less than Rs. 4 per ton at which price 

 the 10 tons of dried fish resulting from five tons of fresh 

 fish cost less than Rs. 30 for fish, salt, and labour ; at 

 Rs. 10 per ton the cost would be Rs 60; ordinarily, 

 therefore, one ton of this excellent food may cost from 

 Rs. 20 to Rs. 40 according to the first cost of the fish. 



