said to have put up a manufactory at Concarneau, in the department of Finisterre, for the manufacture of guano from the refuse of the sardine fishery, and one on the coast of Newfoundland, at Quirpon, near the eastern entrance of the Strait of Belle Isle, for the utilization in similar manner of the refuse from the cod fishery. According to the Chemie Industrielle, the establishment at Concarneau, in 1854, employed sixteen operatives and worked up daily eighteen or twenty tons of refuse into four or five tons of manure. The composition of this article is noted by Payen at 11.6 per cent. of nitrogen and 10.3 per cent. of phosphoric acid, with only 2.5 per cent of fat. Other analyses gave about 12 per cent. of nitrogen and 6.7 per cent. of phosphoric acid. The Quirpon establishment was reported as able to produce 8,000 or 10,000 tons of manure annually.

A manufactory of fish guano by the De Molon process was reported as in operation at Lowestoft, in England, in 1856. The same process was said to be employed in 1857-1861, by the Oceanic Oil and Guano Company at Southold, Long Island, N. Y. A pamphlet put out by this company describes the process as follows:

"The raw fish, in quantities of one and two-third tons (or about 5,000 fish), are placed in the inner chamber of a revolving cylinder, the vacuum between the inner and outer chamber being heated by steam at about 80 pounds pressure. Before letting in the steam the cylinder must be put in motion, so that each fish, as the cylinder revolves, is constantly changing its position. The cooking at this pressure of steam requires but ten minutes, during which time a uniform temperature is maintained by means of one head of the inner cylinder being perforated so as to allow the escape of the steam generated from the water contained in the fish, which prevents the dissolution of the gelatine and all the soluble parts, and they are therefore retained in the fish. When the heat in the inner cylinder has arrived at the temperature to produce steam from the fish, it escapes through the perforated head, and thus enables the fish to receive a temperature just sufficient to open the cellular tissues and give an easy and speedy egress to the oil.

"After the fish are thus steamed, they are put into strong bags, prepared in size to fit the top of the press-head, in layers of eight inches of thickness; between each layer or bag is placed a strong iron plate. In this manner the press is filled, when they are subjected for about five minutes to a powerful hydraulic pressure. After the oil has ceased to run, the remains are then put through a strong picker, which reduces the cakes to small particles for the drying process. It is then dried by heated air or by platforms exposed to the sun."

Early manufacture in Rhode Island.

279. Prof. Charles T. Jackson, writing in 1854, remarks:

"In this country a company has been formed, in Rhode Island, for the manufacture of fish manure, and the fat menhaden of Providence River

and Long Island Sound will be used to produce both oil and fish-cake, and the latter, being duly prepared so as to render it inodorous, will be sent into the agricultural market as an artificial guano. I have no doubt of the high fertilizing effects which this guano is capable of producing, nor of the economy of the manufacture proposed."*

Manufacture in Canada.

280. Mr. Hunt, in the Report of the Geological Survey of Canada, under date of March, 1858, says:

"Mr. Duncan Bruce has lately been endeavoring to introduce the manufacture of fish-manure into Canada; but he conceived the idea of com. bining the fish offal with a large amount of calcined shale, under the impression that the manure thus prepared will have the effect of driv ing away insects from the plants to which it is applied."

Analyses of this manure, by Mr. Hunt, showed it to contain about 3 per cent. of ammonia and something more than 3 per cent. of phosphoric acid; and so of less than half the manurial value of a well-made article from pure fish alone.

Manufacture of "cancerine" in New Jersey.

281. Professor Cook, State geologist of New Jersey, in his report for 1856, states that

"An establishment for making a concentrated manure from kingcrabs or horse-feet had been erected at Goshen, in Cape May County, by Messrs. Ingham & Beesley. Several hundred tons of this substance were made last year and sold under the name of cancerine. It is a pow erful fertilizer, and in its composition, as well as in its effects, has considerable resemblance to guano." The average per cent. of ammonia and phosphoric acid in "cancerine," as shown by three analyses by Professor Cook, was 9.92 per cent. of ammonia and 4.05 per cent. of phosphoric acid, and he estimates its value at $31 per ton; and further says, “the results of trials with it have fully sustained its value as determined by analyses."

Early manufacture in Maine.

282. Mr. Goodale says further, in the report referred to:

"Until within a few months, I was not aware that any attempt had been made in our State to manufacture a portable manure from fish; but I have recently learned of several. In Boston I found an article for sale under the name of fish-guano,' which by inquiry was ascer tained to have been made by a Mr. Fowler, at Lubec. I learned subse quently that he had manufactured a quantity two or three years previ ously, but that either from not finding a ready sale, or from other causes, had discontinued its manufacture. It is understood to have *Report of the Commissioner of Patents for the year 1854-Agriculture.-Washing1855, p. 107.

ton

been made by drying the fish after pressure, when it was ground and a portion of gypsum mixed with it. As offered for sale, it was a grayish powder, in which portions of bone could be distinguished.

"Learning that a somewhat similar article had been sold and used in some of the Penobscot towns, from Mr. C. G. Alden, of Camden, I called upon him, and found that he had made last year, for the first time, about a hundred barrels, at Long Island, in Blue Hill Bay, which he sold readily at $1.50 per barrel of about 150 pounds, and learned that it gave entire satisfaction. It was prepared from pogy chum by simply drying it in the sun, and when packed he added a peck of gypsum to each barrel. Some barrels were examined which had just been made (August, 1861), and the article appeared to be in a good state of preservation, except that it was slightly moist and gave off free ammonia. Mr. Alden intimated that the lack of sufficient capital alone prevented his entering into its manufacture upon a much more extended scale. He hoped, however, to prepare five hundred barrels or more the pres

ent season.

"At Eastport I found fish guano manufactured upon a larger scale. Messrs. U. S. Treat & Son, well known for their enterprise, perseverance, and success in the artificial propagation of fish, after preliminary trials for some years past, prepared about one hundred and fifty tons during the season of 1860, nearly the whole of which was shipped to Connecticut. He makes it under a patent held or claimed by the Quinnipiac Company of Connecticut. It is manufactured almost entirely from herrings, of which they formerly cured a large amount, but now find it more profitable to make it into guano. They are caught in weirs (about Treat's Island, on which they reside), and are thence taken to a railway running into the water and dipped into a car, drawn up by a windlass. When the car comes to be opposite one of a tier of tanks near the track, a gate or door in the car is opened and the fish slide in; salt is added in the proportion of one bushel to each hogshead (of four barrels) of fish. After pickling for about twenty-four hours, they are moderately heated in open kettles, when they are pressed to obtain the oil, of which they yield about 8 per cent., and to express as much of the water as possible; after which the cake or chum is broken up, spread on a platform of boards, and dried in the sun. It is subsequently ground and packed in bags of two bushels each, and which contain eighty pounds-twentyfive bags or about fifty bushels to the ton of two thousand pounds. He sells it for $15 per ton; and the cost of the bags, delivering or shipping, are extra charges.

"The platform in use last year for drying is about eighty by one hundred and twenty feet square, slightly inclined to the sun, with a storehouse on the lower side. Another was in process of erection when I was there, as also another railway and other conveniences for extending their operations.

"The patent held or claimed by the Quinnipiac Company is understood to be 'for drying by solar heat upon an elevated platform.' If a patent be granted for this, why not for drying salted fish upon an elevated flake, or for drying clothes on an elevated line, by solar heat? From various sources, I learn that the fish guano prepared by this method gives high satisfaction.*

"Prof. S. W. Johnson, of Yale College, chemist to the Connecticut State Agricultural Society, informs me that the article prepared by the Quinnipiac Company is the most popular fertilizer sold in that State.

1

"To sum up in a word the results of my investigations and experi ments regarding the manufacture of a portable, inoffensive, and efficient manure from fish or fish offal, I may say that I deem the same practicable; that no costly machinery or complicated processes are required; that all which is necessary is, first, to cook the fish sufficiently to coagu late the albumen contained in it; then to express as much of the oil and water as may be, and to dry the remainder as quickly and thoroughly as possible. A pickling of the fish first with salt would probably facili tate the operation.

"It is confidently hoped that the waste of such enormous quantities of fertilizing material as have hitherto been thrown will not much longer go on, but that they may be converted to use, feed our hungry fields, and fill our barns with plenty."

Early manufacture in France.

De

283. Turning again to the manufacture of fish manures in Europe, we note that the process of De Molon, referred to above, is described by Deherain (Wurz Dict., ch. I, 1236) as follows: "The fish are first boiled, then pressed to force out the water and oil; the residue is then dried and ground in a mill." Molon's first factory was at Concarneau, Department of Finisterre. He seems to have established others on the English coast and in Newfoundland, in company with Thurneyssen. From disconnected statements in different works to which I have had access, the industry on the French coast seems to have suffered from lack of material. A company, "Credit Mobilier," into whose hands the enterprise fell, attempted to use city refuse with it, but through business complications, stock speculations, etc., the whole undertaking failed.

About the same time that De Molon introduced his method of manufacture in France, Pettit and Green patented another process in England (1852), the peculiar feature of which was "the use of sulphuric acid, which was added to change its consistence." After treatment with the acid, the fish was dried in hot air.

*According to Mr. Boardman, Mr. C. G. Allen, of Camden, Me., was engaged in 1802 in making fish guano from "pogy chum," by drying it in the sun. (Rept. U. S. Dept. Ag., 1862, p. 57.)

Early manufacture in England.

284. From an article in the "Farmers' Magazine" (London) for August, 1859, by Samuel Osler, of Great Yarmouth, who claims to have discovered a method preferable to that of De Molon or Pettit, a few paragraphs are quoted by Mr. Goodale:

"The enormous consumption of guano, its high price, and extensive adulteration, have led to a desire of an auxiliary or substitute. The most obvious source is the fishery. What we require is a simple, cheap, and effectual mode of separating the parts which are. needless for manure-the water, gelatine, and oil, the two latter suffi. ciently pure to be commercially valuable, and leaving the fiber, bones, and scales in a state fit for keeping and for use. It has been ascertained by experiment, and confirmed by actual working, that the refuse and waste fish may be thus converted, and the gelatine and oil collected by a process which I have discovered. The machinery and the process are simple, inexpensive, and effectual. The principle of the manufacture is founded upon the fact that when fish or flesh is subjected to a longcontinued and moderate heat the fluids separate, dissolve the gelatine, and leave the fibrous and bony solids. This is easily shown by putting meat or fish into a flask and setting it in boiling water, corking the flask when fully heated. The fluids will gradually separate, while the flesh will, after a time, be left a dry and insipid residuum."

Mr. Osler gives the results of several analyses by Professors Way and Voelcker and Dr. Stoeckhardt, by an average of which it appears to contain about 12 per cent. ammonia and 7 per cent. of phosphates.

Other European manufacture.

285. In the Paris International Exhibition of 1855, among the speci mens of artificial manure was one, "engrais poisson," prepared from fish, which," after being steamed, were pressed into cakes and dried." It was "said to contain from 10 to 12 per cent. of nitrogen, and from 16 to 22 per cent. of phosphate (= 7 to 10 per cent. phosphoric acid). The price was about $35 per ton.

On the coast of the North Sea, at Varel, in Oldenburg, immense numbers of a kind of small crab (Crangon vulgaris), called in German Granaten, or Granälen, are taken, dried, ground without any steaming, and thus made into what is called "Granat guano."

On the coast of the Baltic Sea, at Labagiehnen, near Labiau, in East Prussia, considerable fish refuse has been manufactured into a fertilizer. The following are analyses of the articles just named: