130 MADRAS FISHERIES BULLETIN VOL. XI, 



product, partly by impregnation and partly by covering it with an 

 antiseptic coating whereof the effective agent is creosote contained 

 in the wood smoke. The importance of this operation as affecting 

 the keeping qualities of the product is not properly appreciated by 

 Indian curers ; consequently in the desire to make a maximum of 

 profit, they smoke the stuff only when compelled to do so by a 

 continuance of rainy weather and then only in order to get the 

 material dry. They make the mistake of considering the smoke house 

 as an artificial dryer and not as a sterilizing chamber. They look 

 on smoking as an expensive substitute for sun drying. This defect 

 in itself would not be serious, as I have proved commercially, if 

 frequent periodical examination of the stored material be made, if 

 it be spread out in the sun whenever any dampness be apparent, 

 and if it be shipped to its destination in frequent parcels imme- 

 diately enough be accumulated. But this is not the business method 

 of local merchants. They will not send small lots for sale at fre- 

 quent intervals owing to the somewhat higher ratio of charges 

 involved thereby ; they prefer to accumulate comparatively large 

 quantities and to sit on this indefinitely — even for several years — 

 waiting for advice from their Penang correspondents of the advent 

 of high prices. During this lengthy storage, in spite of the general 

 dryness of the climate on the Ramnad coast, the material sooner or 

 later absorbs moisture and in the congenial conditions of damp and 

 darkness, fermentative micro-organisms establish themselves in the 

 material and rapidly entail marked deterioration. I have seen 

 long-stored material dissolving into a black glutinous mass. 

 When this happens, the owner reboils the material, thereby arrest- 

 ing fermentation and temporarily sterilizing the mass. Each re- 

 boiling reduces the weight and impairs the outward appearance, as 

 the fermented portions dissolve in boiling water and leave ugly 

 abscess-like cavities, which must tell their tale quite plainly to 

 expert buyers. 

 THE STORY OF THE GOVERNMENT EXPERIMENTAL 



FACTORY. 

 Consequent upon the conclusions come to from my preliminary 

 investigation of the industry in 1914-15, I felt that here was an 

 industry, brought to discredit and ruin by careless work and short- 

 sighted trade trickery, whereto Government effort might with 

 propriety be devoted with the three-fold aim of reviving a decadent 

 local industry, of perfecting the methods hitherto employed, and 



