126 



in operation in Japan and elsewhere for fish ; I allude 

 to artificial drying. In paragraphs 40, 65 and 70 of my 

 Japanese note I have alluded to special dryers, and 

 wherever there is an engine artificial heat may usefully 

 be employed by utilizing its exhaust, or, where fuel is 

 cheap, by a simple dryer such as I have seen used for 

 drying wet coftee, etc., or, more elaborately, in cotton 

 mills. In Japan both methods were seen, the furnace 

 in the second method burning any combustible rubbish ; 

 this artificial heat method is specially useful for final 

 drying or when the aii is specially moist as on the West 

 Coast where thorough solar drying of thick tissues is 

 often difficult, While the processes of paragraph 53 

 will be chiefly relied on these latter may be tried and I 

 propose to build a couple of small cheap dryers utilizing 

 the exhaust from any engine I may have and cheap fuel 

 including the waste parts of fish. A small Haylock 

 dryer costs ^30 but will supply 5,000 cubic feet per 

 minute of air at I20''-F. and would thoroughly and 

 rapidly dry fish that a considerable yard would 

 imperfectly dry.* 



55. A combination of the special methods adopted by 

 the Ratnagiri men at Malpe and by curers at Adiram- 

 patnam, etc., with those in vogue in England, Scotland, 

 America and Norway is most promising ; in this method 

 salting for weeks instead of for one night is adopted, the 

 fish being kept in heaps during the processes. In Indian 

 practice this salting and pressing in heaps, finishes the 

 process and the fish is then sold off ; in the Western 

 processes it is only the beginning or concomitant of 

 slow, careful, and thorough open air drying, the result 

 being an excellent and wholesome product. When the 

 weather is unpropitious artifical drying of a very simple 

 character is adopted, viz., the fish are hung in 'ines or 

 placed in trays in a tall building of little cost and coke 

 stoves introduced at the bottom ; a draught is created 

 by louvre ventilators at the top and air openings below. 

 The western methods will be experimented upon, but no 

 expenditure of any importance will be necessary. 



56. In the matter of small fish sundried without salt, 

 nothing at present will be done except to inculcate the 

 drying on mats or low platforms of open bamboo work 

 instead of on the sand, in view to minimize the admixture 



* Not yet tried, exhaust steam not being available. Store dryers are in use. 



