108 



cold storage or used, as in Europe, to draw a train of canoe-shaped 

 live-chests, would do much to improve matters and to develop deep- 

 water fishing off Pulicat, Ennore, etc, 



227. Canning and curing. — Irrespective of the possibilities of an 

 export trade a large amount of canned fish is used in In'3ia, not merely 

 hj Europeans, and yet a solitary French canner is the sole representative 

 of the industry ; his products are cheap and said to be good and 

 provide an example for imitation ; the factory industry itself is simple 

 and requires but a moderate amount of capital and training ; the experi- 

 mental stations and scores of petty factories in Japan turn out excellent 

 goods. There is nothing to prevent the early establishment of such an 

 industry save the knowledge and enterprise which will organize not 

 merely the work on shore but the more difficult yet absolutely essential 

 business of ensuring a supply of fish absolutely fresh from the sea so 

 as to avoid obvious risks to health. 



228. Manure and oil. — The manure and fish oil industry is one 

 which should heavily repay capital and benefit agriculture to an untold 

 extent. In Japan this industry — the two are of course combined since 

 herring aud sardine are the chief manure fish — has taken on an 

 immense development since the Japanese are well aware of the high 

 manurial value of fish. Here, in India, its value is practically unknown ; 

 cocoanuts and tobacco occasionally get sardine manure, especially offal, 

 on the West Coast : on the East Coast I have found no trace of its use 

 except that the brine in which sardines have been salted is, in one 

 place, said to be used for tobacco. Hence the introduction of fish 

 manure to Madras fields awaits the use of an agricultural demand, 

 and this can only be shown experimentally on the Government farms 

 unless the district associations or well-to-do farmers will take up the 

 matter in view of developing the double industries of agriculture 

 and fisheries. Seeing that dried sardines can be frequently had in 

 vast quantities on the shore at from Es. 20 to Es. 25 per ton, and that 

 there is rail communication along both West and Bast Coasts, there 

 is an obvious field for enterprise wholly irrespective of the export 

 trade which ought, however, only to be utilized if an Indian demand 

 cannot be worked up. One obstacle to trade is in the gross adulter- 

 ation of the article with sand ; this is partly unintentional as the 

 fish are dried on the loose sand, some of which is gathered up with 

 the fish. But Dr. Lehmann states that whereas the average of sand 

 was 6 per cent, a few years ago it is now far higher averaging 39'56 

 (? 34"56) in 1905-1906, and a sample shown me in London had 44 per 

 cent. : these figures show wilful and gross adulteration which will 

 damage the trade and crush the demand just as the Cuddapah indigo 

 trade was similarly sjDoiled : one obvious result of an organized trade 

 would be the stoppage of this adulteration and the production of 

 a warrantable article. Probably the enterprise demands such know- 

 ledge, organization, and capital that European firms will at first alone 



