7^0 



in England where canning" for home use is not greatly 

 needed or practised ; but for India it has great lessons. 

 The only alternatives are refrigeration or curing ; the 

 former is expensive and temporary in result, the latter 

 is difficult to carry out in such a v*^ay that the products 

 are thoroughly digestible and generally acceptable ; 

 light curing is difficult and risky both for the producer 

 or retailer, while hard curing produces goods which have 

 lost much of their savour, digestibility, and nutritive 

 value ; smoking is not yet acceptable to the general 

 public. Pickled fish ought to be a universal product 

 and is a line which " Fisheries '" is taking up as a rival 

 to canned goods ; the want and cost of barrels or other 

 containers and the cost of freight are against the popu- 

 larity of pickled goods which, moreover, will not keep 

 indefinitely. Canned goods, however, can be produced 

 at fairly cheap rates (not so cheap of course as ordinary 

 cured goods) which, having been thoroughly sterilised, 

 will be absolutely free from the risks attending badly 

 cured or so-called " fresh " fish, which will contain the 

 maximum of solid food in a minimum of space and will 

 therefore transport well and cheaply, will always be 

 ready for consumption even without cooking, and will 

 keep indefinitely ; it is not generally known that properly 

 canned goods improve by keeping and that respectable 

 French canners will not issue canned sardines till six or 

 twelve months after manufacture. Canning, as specially 

 studied in the Govenment station for the production of 

 plain and cheap goods, is a most useful advance in the 

 curino- industrv, and partlv from lessons recentlv learnt 

 in England, certain lines of economical canning have 

 been adopted and standardized which will provide cans 

 of -^, I, or more pounds, of solid, sound, and wholesome 

 food thoroughly sterilized and excellently prepared, and 

 with much less contents of water than fresh fish, at not 

 more than the cost of (so-called) fresh fish as packed 

 in ice and sold upcountry. 



13. A bitter controversy was submitted to the 

 Mao-isterial Courts in England in 19 12 as to whether 

 any fish except those canned by the French (or Portu- 

 guese) canners can be labelled and sold as sardines, 

 it being contended by the French canners that only the 

 young " Clupea pilchardus " found on their coast, can 

 lawfully be called a " sardine," and that sprats, brisling, 



