146 



10. Food. — As for the food question. It is, of course, 

 hopeless to think of putting fresh sardines on an inland 

 market ; they can only appear there as a cured product, 

 either dried, dried and smoked, salted, or canned. Hence 

 I propose that an experimental station at or near Telli- 

 cherry should be opened in two sections as soon as 

 possible, primarily for work at the sardine and mackerel 

 shoals : — 



f(i) by way of improving the ordinary 

 Section i ...\ salting and drying, 



[ (2) by adding smoking to the drying, 

 Section 2 ... (3) by canning. 



Experiment, especially in smoking and canning, will 

 also be carried on with several other classes offish. 



11. Section i. — At various places I saw a good deal 

 of the sardines as " cured " for food ; in the better class 

 of methods as at the fish-curing yards, they were lightly 

 salted (one part salt to 7 or 8 of gutted fish) for one 

 night, rapidly dried on the ground in the sun for a day 

 or possibly two, and then sent out for consumption. A 

 large quantity, however, was .either slightly salted in 

 domestic yards and dried, or dried without any salt at 

 all, and the product was then peculiarly offensive; at 

 certain railway stations the packages simply reeked w^ith 

 taint, or " high " flavour, and were for despatch to the 

 East Coast (South Arcot especially) where sardines do 

 not appear. Now properly cured sardines are excellent 

 and cheap food and I propose first to experiment in 

 securing that the fish shall be absolutely fresh on arrival 

 at the yard ; this is easy at present as the fish are caught 

 inshore, mostly within 2 or 3 miles of the coast, but 

 when fishing extends further out the motor or steam 

 carrier may become necessary ; the live chest or pen 

 near shore in which catches not immediately curable may 

 be retained alive will also be tried. I propose, secondly, 

 to cure them in several different ways ; [a) they will be 

 treated as pilchards are treated in Cornwall. From 

 October onwards when sardines and mackerel are most 

 abundant on the West Coast, they are also fat and full 

 of oil like pilchards ; they can be then mixed with plenty 

 of salt heaped into vats provided with means for allowing 

 the brine and oil to escape, somewhat weighted, and lett 

 for several weeks (if necessary) in the vats ; they are 

 then taken out washed, packed, and marketed ; [b) they 



