82 



above 50 per cent of the outturn ; this oil was recently 

 described by a European buying- firm as " unique," by 

 reason of its purity, colour and slight odour ; the Oil 

 Chemist attached to the department has also given it a 

 hio'h technical value. 



The conditions of manufacture were aeain un- 

 fortunate, as the shoals of fat fish were not only few but 

 ceased at a very early date ; this was the case all along 

 the coast and merchants who had made forward contracts 

 were seriously embarrassed. Most of the best oil was 

 retained for experimental purposes, but a good profit 

 was nevertheless realised on this manufacture. 



The profits ordinarily obtainable may be gauged by 

 the fact that as against the single factory of 1908-09 

 there were at the close of the year no less than 211 

 private factories in Malabar and South Canara, the 

 former district having two-thirds of the number. More- 

 over, the quantity of fish guano (that is, the dried 

 product obtained from the boiled fish) exported by sea 

 alone, increased — notwithstanding the shortness, etc., of 

 the season — to 4,726 tons as against 1,872 in the 

 previous year ; to this must be added the exports by 

 road and rail which are not known. The above weioht 

 of guano represents at least 25,000 tons of raw fish, so 

 that the new method, due entirely to the work of this 

 department, is now taking an appreciable share in the 

 fish manure trade, while the oil represents a gain 

 hitherto lost. The oil exports by sea were 1,511 tons, 

 of which above half went to Germany. 



6. It may here be well to mention a point of 

 importance, viz., the apparent economic sin of turning 

 these fish, so valuable as food, into a soil fertiliser. At 

 first sight it seems wrong (and the sentiment has been 

 reflected in previous reports) that good nourishing 

 human food should be turned into manure. But there 

 are considerations which, especially in the tropics, put a 

 different complexion on the matter: (i) that with the 

 present means at disposal, or, at all events, under 

 indigenous methods of curing, the masses of sardine 

 which are sometimes caught in vast quantities within a 

 few hours, cannot be turned into safe and wholesome 

 food (especially when the fish is very oily) owing to the 

 rapidity of tainting and the paucity of labour, so that the 

 turning of the fish into fertiliser either as guano or as 



