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market, if it is found simultaneously possible to keep 

 down the cost. Preservation is the crux of the whole 

 problem, and the experimental station will attack this 

 problem in every possible way and with all the aid that 

 modern applied science can give. 



38. But cheapness and acceptability are also essentials 

 and must be studied no less carefully than soundness; 

 any expert can produce first class salted fish dried or 

 wet, or tins of good sardines, or excellent smoked seer, 

 bonito, etc., but if the product is beyond the purse or 

 not to the taste of the public there will be failure. The 

 first duty, then, of the experimental station will be to 

 find out successful methods, and then by a process of 

 elimination and simplification to minimize the plant and 

 all the items of cost till the Ijwest possible cost is 

 attained. The goods can then be put on the market 

 and their public acceptability ascertained ; it may be 

 that putridity or, say, high flavour, is preferred by many, 

 just as the Burmese love ngapi, but, per contra, it is 

 certain that many are deterred from using the present 

 product just because of its character ; it may also take 

 a long time for the public to acquire the taste for smoked 

 or pickled goods, or for canned goods to command confi- 

 dence. Hence the work of the experimental station does 

 not stop with creating the article, but time and money 

 must be spent in creating or ascertaining a demand. It 

 is of little use starting a station if this additional duty is 

 not accepted. 



39. But it is not proposed that the station shall work 

 alone in these matters, especially in those relating to the 

 distributing trade. It has been my endeavour always 

 to awaken the interest and enlist the support of those 

 already connected wqth the trade, and while, with few 

 exceptions, such persons desire to await the result of 

 experiments by Government whether in catching or cur- 

 ing, all avow a willingness to adopt and push results if 

 successful, an attitude quite intelligible from their point 

 of view ; as one Indian firm said " It is not a question of 

 sentiment with us or of assisting industrial progress ; it 

 is just a matter of rupees." Precisely the same was said 

 to me by a London firm, with this radical difference, that 

 the British firm at once started out to experiment, to 

 spend money, thought, energy, and men on ascertaining 

 facts and possibilities in view to getting the cream of the 



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