of the Fishery Board for Scotland. 



xliii 



1913, while the grand total value of all fish cured was £2,863,553 — 

 a decline of £1,076,589 as compared with the return for 1913 (Appendix 

 E, No. IV., page 139). 



East Coast districts contributed £1,838,471, Orkney and Shetland 

 £607,332, and West Coast districts £417,750 towards the total. 



BY-PRODUCTS. 



The wealth which may lie hidden in the once-neglected waste 

 products of industry — awaiting only the application of appropriate 

 methods of extracting it — is now universally recognised, and not the 

 least important of the industries which have grown up as a result of 

 this recognition is the conversion of fish offal into various articles of 

 commercial value. 



The principal products derived from fish ofial are oil, fish-meal, 

 and manure. Oil is of two grades — medicinal and industrial — the 

 first being extracted from perfectly fresh cod-livers only, while industrial 

 oil is obtained from stale livers, intestines, etc. The latter enters 

 into a gTeat variety of industrial processes. It is very largely used 

 in the leather-currying trade, in steel-tempering and screw-cutting, 

 as a body for paints for open-air surfaces, in the textile trades, 

 for lubricating machinery, etc., while the stearine, or solid residue left 

 after refining, is used by soap manufacturers, for sizing yarns, and 

 various other technical purposes. Fish manure is used chiefly as a 

 fertiliser in beet growing, although it is also used in other branches of 

 agriculture. The meal is used for feeding swine and cattle. Other 

 by-products of minor importance are isinglass, which is made from 

 the sounds or swimming bladders, and is used for clarifying fermented 

 liquors, and fish glue. 



In common with every other branch of the fishing industry, the 

 one under discussion was adversely affected by the war, not only 

 because the supply of raw material was seriously curtailed, but because 

 of the cutting off of the German market, which previously absorbed 

 the bulk of the output of fish-meal and manure. The elimination of 

 this market at once caused a heavy fall in prices, particularly in the 

 case of fish-meal, which for the remainder of the year was disposed 

 of as fertiliser, principally to the United States of America, at a 

 reduction in price of about 33 per cent. 



This industry is largely concentrated in or near Aberdeen, where 

 twelve factories — about half of the total number in Scotland — 

 were in operation during 1914. Four of these were engaged in manu- 

 facturing meal and manure, and the remainder in producing oil, and as 

 they are the only establishments regarding whose output it has been 

 possible to obtain reliable figures, the following particulars apply only 

 to Aberdeen. 



The approximate quantity of fish-meal and manure manufactured 

 dm'ing the year was 7500 tons, valued at about £60,000, as compared 

 with 6500 tons and £52,000 in 1913. Prior to the outbreak of war the 

 selling price of fish-meal stood at £9, 7s. 6d. per ton, f. o.b., but, as has 

 been explained, the closing of the German market caused it to fall to 

 £6, 5s. 



Of oil about 1900 tons were produced, the estimated value of which 



