Report on the Condition of the Sea Fisheries of the South Coast of New England

almost 45 bushels to an acre; the most exuberant crop of this grain which I have known in New England."

In 1819, Rev. D. D. Field spoke of the use of fish as manure as follows: "The most efficacious manure in the vicinity of the Sound consists of the white-fish which visit the shores in numerous numbers in June and the first part of July. These began to be used for manure in Middlesex in 1801 and 1802. They are carried as soon as taken and spread upon the land and plowed in; or are thrown into heaps, mixed and covered with earth or turf and suffered to pulverize; and are then spread upon the ground as suits the convenience of the farmers. In either mode the effect even on dry and poor land is wonderful, and though it was at first apprehended by many that after two or three crops they would leave the land poorer than they found it, experience has hitherto proved this apprehension to be groundless.

"Eight thousand are requisite to dress an acre. They have been sold lately for a dollar and a half per thousand."†

Dr. DeKay in the Natural History of New York, 1842, says:

"The use of this fish as a manure is well known in the counties of Suffolk, Kings and Queens, where it is a source of great wealth to the farmer who lives upon the sea coast. They are used in various ways: For Indian corn, two or three are thrown on a bill; for wheat, they are thrown broadcast on the field and plowed under, although it is not uncommon to put them in layers alternately with common mold, and when decomposed spread it like any other compost. Its effects in renovating old grass fields, when spread over with these fish at the rate of about two thousand to the acre, are very remarkable."

In 1853, Mr. Ker B. Hamilton, governor of Newfoundland, in a "Dispatch to the Duke of Newcastle" on "the Refuse of the Cod Fishery of Newfoundland as convertible into a Portable Manure," says: "In this island the manure universally applied to the soil is fish, consisting of the superabundant herrings and caplins in the process of decomposition, and generally without any earthy admixture; and the heads, bones, and entrails of codfish, after having been decomposed and formed into a compost with clay or peat-bog earth. This manure * when applied to the thin, gravelly, unpromising soil (on the Island of Newfoundland) yields crops of grass and potatoes which, in growth and productiveness cannot be surpassed elsewhere." ‡

Messrs. Boardman and Atkins, in their excellent report on "The Menhaden and Herring Fisheries of Maine,"§ to which we shall have frequent

* Dwight's Travels, III, 1822, p. 513, 514, 516.

occasion to refer, say: "More than thirty years ago, before fish oil had become a marketable commodity, the farmers of our eastern coast [Maine] were in the habit of using the fish whole in different forms. In some cases, two or three fish were put in a hill for corn, and covered before the corn was planted; in others they were covered by being thrown into the furrow as the land was being plowed, while in instances less frequent they were made into a compost and applied as a top-dressing. These were the ruder forms of using fish as a fertilizer, and generally practiced before the manufacture of oil and the consequent accumulation of fish scrap." A method similar to the above was formerly in use among the farmers of New Jersey. Prof. George H. Cook, in his report on the geology of that State, says the practice there was to plow a furrow alongside the rows of corn, deposit the fish, and then turn the furrow back again, covering them. In this way the farmers carried their corn through to maturity, and good crops were gathered from the poorest and lightest soils in the State. A Massachusetts correspondent of the "Country Gentleman" (vol. 5, page 152) says the application of fish compost "appears to ameliorate the effects of drouth."

Use at the present day.

270. Mr. Goode states: "even at this day the fish are often applied to the soil in a crude state, though the manufactured fertilizers are su perseding it in most localities. Gov. Caleb Lyon tells me that two or three times every summer Staten Island is visited by smacks loaded with menhaden, which are quickly bought up by the farmers. In planting corn, they put two or three fish in each hill, and so with potatoes; when they plant potatoes in rows, a continuous line of menhaden is placed in the bottom of the furrow, head to tail. In 1871, according to Mr. J. M. K. Southwick, many menhaden were sold for manure in Rhode Island at 30 cents a barrel. During the five years previous he had sold about 75 barrels for this purpose."

Until very lately it has been, certainly, and for aught I know is still, the custom of farmers on the Connecticut coast to use whole fish as a top-dressing.

48. FISH SCRAP AS MANURE.

The inception of its use.-Experience in Maine.

271. As a result of the profitable utilization of fish for the manufacture of oil, the use of the whole fish as a fertilizer has gradually and almost entirely ceased, and given place to the refuse from which the oil has been expressed or otherwise extracted. This is known in its crude state as "fish scrap," "fish pomace," or "chum," and when more carefully prepared, as "dry fish," "dry ground fish," and "fish guano." Still farmers have been slow to avail themselves of this more concentrated material. Messrs. Boardman and Atkins, in the report referred to, say:

"Its use in Maine even in this way, notwithstanding the results were almost always satisfactory, except in some instances where it was used in too large quantities, did not seem to extend to any great extent back into the interior; and even along the coast where farmers could get the scrap for the hauling, not half of them made any use of it. When the business of extracting oil from menhaden was first engaged in along the coast of Hancock County, and especially in Union River Bay, the works were situated on shipboard, and the scrap was thrown overboard into the bay. The result of this was to drive out all the deep-water fish, as mackerel, cod, &c., and this was continued for many years. On the first establishment of oil works at Bluehill Falls and other places the scrap was given away, and farmers could get a scow-load any time they wished. It is said that the farmers in the town of Brooklin first utilized the scrap by applying it to the land, and during days when no catch of menhaden would give work at the factories, the men would cart the scrap away and spread it as a top dressing on grass lands. It was used green from the press, and on the sandy soil of that town its good effects were most marked. Afterwards, it began to be composted with muck or with fine loam, and was applied to potatoes and grass with excellent results. As a top dressing to mowing fields it was spread on after haying, and in this way was generally used fresh. Too large an application was found to induce too rapid a growth of grass and to cause it to rust, and it also gave a fishy flavor to the hay, not relished by cattle; but these matters were gradually learned from experience in its use, and as gradually mastered and overcome. As its value became known its price advanced, and for several years, from about 1858 to 1864, it went up to $6.00 per ton."

Experience in Connecticut.-Mr. Clift.

272. At a meeting of the Connecticut Board of Agriculture in December, 1873, Rev. Wm. Clift, of Mystic Bridge, gave a lecture on "Marine Manures." This was followed by a discussion, in which a number of the best farmers of the State took part, and is interesting, as showing what the practical experience of men who have used fish scrap as rationally as intelligent farmers do anywhere, says of its uses and value. Mr. Clift said:

"Along the shores [of the Long Island Sound] where I have lived for the last twenty-five or thirty years, very large quantities of white-fish, or menhaden, are taken for the purpose of making oil. Formerly they were taken simply for the purpose of making manures, and were caught in very large quantities all along our shore and over on Long Island, in large seines, which were generally owned by companies composed of farmers. These fish were carted by the farmers quite long distances, spread broadcast over their fields, and left to putrefy in the open air, and then along in the fall they would be plowed in for rye and for other

* Report of Conn. Board of Agriculture, 1873, p. 197.

crops. This, of course, was a very wasteful process, as a large part of the ammonia which the decaying fish furnished went off into the air; still, it was a very valuable manure used even in that way. Not only were white-fish taken, but very large quantities of sharks, and some valuable food-fishes were oftentimes taken in connection with these fish, which were caught expressly for manure. Latterly the oil has become exceedingly valuable, so that the companies now take the fish for the purpose of procuring the oil, and the refuse, what remains after the oil has been expressed, is sold for manure. I suppose about forty millions of white-fish are taken annually along the shore of Fisher's Island, in the sound, between New London and Stonington, a distance of not more than ten miles, probably, and there are some six or eight companies that have been organized for the purpose of taking these fish. These companies are quite prosperous, and a source of quite large income, not only to those who are engaged in fishing, but to other people. They make a market for the wood of the farmers in all that region. It is quite a common thing for the farmers to exchange their wood for this fish scrap. About two cords of wood, delivered on the shore, will buy a ton of this fish scrap. * Sometimes they get it in season for the farm [spring?] crops or turnips, and always in season for the rye crop in the fall. The price is from $13 to $16 per ton.

A great deal of it goes up the Connecticut River. The tobacco raisers know the value of fish scrap, and it is sent quite a distance into the country. * The farmers all along the coast use the fish scrap in what is called a 'fish pie.' The scrap is drawn to the farm, a few furrows are turned up near where they want to use the fish scrap the next year, a layer of scrap is put over these furrows, then a layer of sods and so on, forming a compost heap four or five feet high. Probably eight or ten times as much earth as scrap is used, in bulk or weight. After it has lain a few weeks in this condition, it is forked or shoveled over, so that it is all intimately mixed, and the scrap very nearly absorbed by the soil, and in that condition it is fit either to be spread upon the ground for rye or for corn crop the next season. It is also used in connection with stable manure. The scrap is carted into the yard where the stable and yard manure is heaped up, and mixed with that; it adds very greatly to the value of yard manure. They will put, perhaps, one ton of the scrap to ten tons or more of yard manure; and then, after it has remained two or three weeks, it is carted off for topdressing for corn or potatoes, or the ordinary crops of the farm. I have used fish scrap for the last three years on the rye crop, and find it exceedingly beneficial and economical. The soil where I use it is a gravelly loam, very well underdrained, but it has been pretty well exhausted by long cropping. I spread about half a ton of this manure to the acre, and get a very satisfactory yield of rye from this light dressing. It costs me about seven or eight dollars an acre for the manure, and I get in return for it about fifteen bushels of rye to the acre, and

nearly a ton of straw. The straw sells with us for about twenty dollars a ton, and rye is worth from ninety cents to a dollar a bushel; so that for a very small expenditure for manure I get very satisfactory crops of rye. A year ago last summer I used a ton of fish scrap on

half an acre of land. It was nothing but gravel. There was hardly any vegetable matter; none but what had grown out of the gravel, and, perhaps, a little washed from the surrounding land. I did not pay anything for the land; the owner did not consider it worth anything. I got a glorious crop of corn, cabbages, and potatoes on that little piece of land, by the use of a ton of fish scrap."

With regard to the value of green and dried scrap and the loss in drying, Mr. Clift says:

"As it comes from the press, after all the oil has been pressed out of it that can be gotten out by the strongest hydraulic pressure, there is still a great deal of moisture in it-40 or 50 per cent. As it lies on the platform under cover, there is, of course, a constant loss of moisture, but there is also a loss of ammonia, which is very valuable, so that I am not able to say whether the fish-scrap is any more valuable after it has lain a month or two in the house than when it first comes from the press. I think I should prefer to take it as it comes from the press. I think the ammonia which is lost is worth more than will be gained by the evaporation of the water. Fish-scrap, at $12 to $15 per ton, is the cheapest manure we can buy. It is the only commercial fertilizer I have bought for the last six or eight years. I do not invest in superphos phates or bone-dust. I would invest in the latter if I could get a pure article, but when it is half plaster of Paris I do not know what I am buy ing. But this article, when it comes from the factory, is generally fish scrap and nothing else. It always produces just about the same result. You can depend upon it. If you apply one or two tons to the acre, you know what you will gain by its use if it is properly put into the soil and you have a fair season. I think it is a perfectly secure investment for the farmer to make."

Experience of Mr. Hall and Mr. Loveland.

273. Some of the discussion which followed is worthy of note. Mr. Hall, of Wallingford, remarked:

"My experience in regard to fish-scrap is that when it comes from the press it is about 65 per cent. water. Now if that is worth $12 to $15 a ton to carry back ten or twenty miles into the country, when you come to add the freight and the inconvenience of handling it to the freight, I should consider the dried the cheapest. I have used a great many tons myself, and I have always used the dry as the most economical. I have been so situated I could have either, but I preferred the dry; and as Mr. Clift has said, by analysis, it was a cheap manure at the prices at which it was sold." Mr. Clift replied: "Mr. Hall means a different thing by dried fish guano, from what some gentlemen do by dried fish.' He

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