352 MARINE FISHERIES OF NORTH CAROLINA 



the economics of manufacture of fishery products and by-products. Where 

 the supply is seasonal, both plant investment and labor are idle between 

 seasons. When the plant is not working, not only is capital unproductive 

 but the labor force must be disbanded, and reorganized for each new 

 season. Even where the raw material is in year-round supply, it fluctuates 

 in quantity and often also in price from day to day. Under the latter con- 

 ditions, it would be advantageous to buy raw materials only on days of 

 plentiful supply and low price, and not to buy on days of short supply. 

 Such operations tend to equalize prices and absorb the full production but 

 at the expense of a larger number of idle days in the year, and do not 

 provide continuity and security of employment of labor, so that if the 

 market cushion is provided for the fishermen, it is to the disadvantage of 

 shore labor. The fisherman's problem, arising from irregularity of supply, 

 is to a considerable extent merely transferred to the shore processor. 



Limits to Mechanization. Because of the periods of idleness, especially 

 where manufacture is seasonal, it is necessary to keep the capital investment 

 as low as possible; machinery must be simple and cheap. The damp and 

 salty atmosphere at the seashore is highly corrosive and in prolonged periods 

 of idleness the machinery deteriorates rapidly unless it is made of stainless 

 materials, which are expensive and involve much capital investment, but 

 where precision and close tolerances are necessary, stainless metals must 

 be used. 



In the mechanization of manufacture, the fish industry is embarrassed, 

 as it is throughout, by the many kinds and sizes of fish. It is now possible 

 to design a machine that will do almost anything the human hand can do, 

 and feasible if it does the same thing all the time and it is economical to do so, 

 but then only if the volume of manufacture is large enough to justify the 

 design and construction of the machines. The problem is difficult and 

 expensive in the fisheries, even for one species of fish which varies greatly 

 in size; when to this difficulty is added the requirement of versatility of 

 machines to work on different kinds of fishes of diverse shapes and struc- 

 tures, the problems are often beyond economical solution. 



Main- and By-products Manufacture. The main products of the fisheries 

 are used mostly for human food. In canning most of the equipment serves 

 for fish that is standard for other foods; it is neither delicate nor very 

 expensive and operates at high speed. The great bulk of canned fish is in a 

 very few species, salmon, tuna, and sardines, which are known and accepted 

 in world trade. In this country, a secondary line includes shrimp (inferior 

 to, and in competition with, fresh shrimp most of the time), mackerel, 

 oysters, dog and cat food, codfish flakes and- cakes (the latter about two- 

 thirds potatoes), and clams for chowder, To this may be added a long list 



