Radcliffe. — Division of Fishery Industries 115 



has been estimated at 300,000 tons. If science can find a practical means 

 of saving it from deterioration so that it can he brought to some center 

 and there turned into commercial products, either fish scrap or fish 

 meal, it would indeed be a step in advance. The value of fish meal as 

 animal food is not a new thing; the manufacture of this material has 

 been a big industry on the continent for many years. If we can do 

 something along this line we shall solve a problem which is giving the 

 Fisheries Branch of the Department of Marine and Fisheries in Canada 

 a good deal of concern. We have the raw material, but it cannot be 

 collected cheaply enough at any one centre to enable the carrying 

 on of a paying business. If we can devise a method of collection or 

 of economical operation on the spot, we shall accomplish something that 

 will be of national benefit. 



Mr. Radcliffe: We now have machines, adapted from the meat- 

 packing plants, for converting small quantities of waste into scrap or 

 feed. These machines have been successful in some places, but I fear 

 that they will not work as well in others, particularly with material rich 

 in glue. These are some of the problems with which we are faced. I 

 may say that we have gone a step further and asked the Department of 

 Agriculture, through its Bureau of Animal Industry, to carry on, as 

 soon as it can, a series of feeding tests with material cooked at the 

 fishing center, with a view to devising a method of enabling the little 

 fellow, who has only a small amount of material, to produce a suitable 

 feed for his hogs. If we could do this for our whole coast line, it 

 would considerably increase the feed supply. 



Prof. John N. Cobb, Seattle, Wash.: I was glad to hear Mr. Rad- 

 cliffe say that somebody had devised a machine that would handle small 

 quantities, because that has always been our problem on the Pacific 

 coast. In a section where there are a number of salmon canneries 

 within reach, it is easy enough to build a chute and a tank on the end 

 of a dock and gather the material inside, but in the case of the single 

 small plant located in an isolated section, it has been almost impossible 

 to do anything with the fish waste. In order to make good fish meal, 

 the scrap ought to be fresh; if it is not, it can be used only for fer- 

 tilizer. 



I have watched closely the fish-meal and fish-scrap industry of the 

 Pacific coast, and I am sorry to say that I no not think any of the 

 plants have made much money. During the war, oil was very high, fer- 

 tilizer was high, and fish meal was high; so they had a chance then to 

 make a little money. But the unfortunate thing has been the great 

 initial cost of a plant and the fact that the plant could be operated only 

 a very short period in the year ; in other words, the plants must lie idle 

 for eight to ten months of the year. It is thus very difficult to make 

 a profit on an investment of something like $30,000. It would be well 

 if some small plant could be established at each cannery, for instance, 

 or at each fishing station, to handle this material, much along the line 

 of the little plants formerly used in connection with the sardine can- 



