TOO 



West Coast Experimental Station. 



5. The west coast experimental station was run by 

 myself and the Assistant Director on the same lines as 

 in the previous year, but a Sub-Assistant was appointed 

 late in the year to take charge of the Tanur curing yard, 

 and another to the cannery ; these young men are under 

 training. A student from Baroda and another from 

 Travancore were also admitted to training for official 

 work in their own States and did very well ; a young 

 man from a South Kanara curing factory was also 

 admitted as an unpaid student. 



The year was extremely unfavourable, worse than any 

 recent year ; there were no shoals of catfish from which 

 such large supplies of food and money are usually 

 obtained, few large fish, extremely few mackerel, and an 

 extraordinary shortage of sardines, which, moreover, 

 contained very little fat and that only for a minimum 

 period ; the oil and guano operations were practically 

 confined to November and those only on very few occa- 

 sions, so that the station was able to supply only 250 

 gallons of fine oil to the Government Cawnpore Leather 

 Factory instead of 1 ,000, and a lo-ton guano contract 

 was, with difficulty, carried out. These unfavourable 

 conditions were general all along the coast, and oil and 

 guano factories were either wholly or largely idle and 

 forward contractors experienced heavy losses ; the sea 

 beaches were practically devoid of the usual masses of 

 sardines drying as fish manure. 



Some items of the work of the Tanur yard are 

 shown in Appendix II, but it is to be noted (1) that the 

 year was very unfavourable, (2) that the yard is experi- 

 mental and not commercial so that a good deal of money 

 is necessarily expended without a return in profits, (3) 

 that the staff, being Government employees, is neces- 

 sarily kept on throughout the year and for every day in 

 the year, whether there is work or not. 



It was found impossible to induce Ratnagiri fisher- 

 men to bring their boats to Beypore, so that we were 

 deprived of the cold weather catches of large fish which 

 we obtained at Cannanore through these men. No real 

 deep-sea work was possible. 



6. Cu7'ing. — No new departures were made except 

 in the construction of a new drier and in improving 



