of the Fishery Board for Scotland. 



21 



represented only 58 per cent, of the cure during the year, as against 

 99 per cent, in 1913 and 87 per cent, in 1919. 



Through the operation of the Herring Guarantee scheme the 

 greater part of the year's cure of herrings was acquired by the 

 Government, and sales had therefore to be arranged chiefly by the 

 Executive Committee in Aberdeen. 



Scottish herrings for a time met with a fair demand on the 

 Continent, going chiefly to Poland, Eoumania, Finland, and in leas 

 quantities to the Baltic Provinces. The herrings for Roumania were 

 shipped direct to Galatz instead of being taken overland as in pre- 

 war years. Unfortunately herring exports were restricted during the 

 coal strike in October, and on its termination the rate of exchange 

 with Poland, which was the chief market, had become so adverse that 

 little further business was transacted, while the restrictions imposed 

 by the Latvian Government on remittances to this country in pay- 

 ment for herrings put an end to the shipment of herrings by private 

 firms to that country. The decision of the German Government to 

 terminate the import monopoly above referred to as from 15th 

 December improved the prospects of export to Germany, but it was 

 made too late to have any marked effect for the year. The exports 

 to places out of Europe consisted mainly of West Coast matjes 

 shipped to the United States, chiefly for the J ewish population there, 

 but although the exports to that market increased by 10 per cent, 

 as compared with 1919, they reached only two-thirds of the pre-war 

 figure. 



Practically two-thirds of the herrings accepted under the Govern- 

 ment Guarantee were still on hand at 31st December, and the total 

 stock of cured gutted herrings on hand in Scotland at that date were 

 278,327 barrels, of which 267,394 barrels were Government stocks 

 and 10,933 barrels were in private hands. 



CHAPTER IV. 



FISHERIES OTHER THAN HERRING. 

 Demersal Fish. 



Of fish other than herrings, sprats, sparlings and mackerel, the 

 total landings in Scotland for the year amounted to 3,069,415 cwts., 

 valued at £4,238,032, being an increase of 43 per cent, in quantity 

 but of only 12 per cent, in value as compared with the landings for 

 1919. The quantity still fell short of that of 1913, the last year 

 before the war, by 226,842 cwts., although owing to the great 

 advance in prices the value was greater by £2,413,291. The average 

 price per cwt. for the year 1920 was 27s. 7d., as against 35s. 6d. in 

 1919 and lis. 9d. in 1913. 



The significance of these figures lies in the fact that while the 

 output of this branch of the industry again reached practically its 

 pre-war volume, the wholesale price of fish, although still high as 

 compared with the old standards, fell considerably as compared with 



