SEA-FISHERIES LABORATORY. 109 
herrings from, say, 14 lb. of fresh herrings is evidently relatively 
less than that of producmg 1 lb. smoked sprats from 
13 lb., say 75, of fresh sprats. The result that might have been 
expected was that which actually occurred—the Fish (Prices) 
Order stimulated the production of kippered herrings, but, 
the factor of profit in private production being what it is, it 
drove smoked sprats out of the market. On the other hand, 
the price of fish pastes was uncontrolled, and the production 
of these was greatly stimulated. No doubt the substitution 
of fish paste for butter, margarine and jam in the early months 
of 1918 had something to do with this, but the Fish (Prices) 
Order was probably also a factor from the point of view of 
profitable enterprise. 
Smoking and drying of sprats being, therefore, out of the 
question in 1918, there remained the canning factories and 
the manure works as the outlets for the “ gluts ” of fish which 
could not be sold fresh or exported. Only one factory in 
England canned sprats in the sardine fashion in 1918, and the 
quantity of fish turned into paste in the smaller establishments 
on the Essex coast and elsewhere was probably exceedingly 
small in comparison with the total quantities landed—for these 
small establishments “carried on” under great difficulties 
because of the Military Service Acts. The output of the single 
English factory canning sprats increased greatly in 1918, but, 
obviously, it could take only a very small fraction of the fish 
placed at its disposal. 
How the Fish (Prices) Order affected the quantities of 
sprats sold fresh in the shops it is impossible to say with the 
information now available. But it seems to have been the case 
that the fisheries on the Kent and Essex coasts, in Morecambe 
Bay and in the Firth of Tay were (relative) failures in the 
winter of 1918-19. Sprats were much less in evidence in the 
smaller fish shops and probably much more in evidence in the 
manure factories, 
