1st. In dunging corn in the holes, put two in a hill in any kind of soil where corn will grow, and you will have a good crop. The Indians on the sea-coasts used to dung their corn with wilks and other shell-fish, and with fish if they could get it.

2d. By spreading those fish on the ground for grass a good crop is produced; put them on a piece of poor loamy land, at the distance of 15 inches from each other on the turf, exposed to the sun and air, and by their putrefaction they so enrich the land that you may mow about two tons per acre. How long this manure will last experience has not

yet determined.

3d. An experiment was made the last summer by one of my near neighbors, Mr. Jonathan Tuthill, in raising vegetables with this fishmanure. About the first of June he carted near half an ox-cart load of those fish on 20 feet square of poor light land, being loam mixed with sand. The fish he spread as equally as he could by throwing them out of the cart. Being exposed to the weather they were soon consumed. He then raked off the bones to prevent their hurting the feet of the children who might go into the garden, and plowed up the piece and planted it with cucumbers and a few cabbages. The season was extremely dry, and but very few cucumbers were raised in the neighborhood except what grew on this small piece of ground, and here the production exceeded anything that had been known. By his own computation, and that of his neighbors, this 20 feet square of ground produced more than forty bushels of cucumbers, besides some fine cabbages. I measured the ground myself, and make no doubt of the quantity adjudged to have grown on the same.

By putting these fish on the land for manure, exposed to the air until they are consumed, there can be no doubt that a considerable part of the manure is lost by the effluvia which passes off the putrefied substance, as is evident from the next experiment.

4th. Mr. Joseph Glover, a farmer in Suffolk County, having a small poor farm, for a few years past has gone into the practice of making manure with these fish for the purpose of enriching his land, which is a loamy soil, dry, and in parts light. He first carts earth and makes a bed of such circumference as will admit of being nine inches thick; he then puts on one load of fish, then covers this load with four loads of common earth; but if he can get rich dirt he then covers it with six loads, and in that manner makes of fish and earth a heap of about thirty loads. The whole mass soon becomes impregnated and turns black. By experience he finds that fifteen ox-cart loads of this manure is a sufficient dressing for one acre of his poor land, which produces him thirty bushels of the best wheat by the acre, and the next year from the same land sown with clover-seed he has cut four tons of hay, which he computes at two loads and a half by the acre. The expense of making this manure where the fish are plenty cannot exceed three shillings per ton, and is the cheapest manure, considering its quality, of any yet known,

provided it is durable, which cannot yet be determined. On some parts of Long Island those fish are taken in seines, and carted six and seven miles for the purpose of manure, and is found to be very profitable business. Mr. Glover relates a circumstance which is curious, and confirms some experiments made by Dr. Priestly, and at the same time shows that you derive less benefit from those fish when exposed to the air than when covered with earth. He made a heap composed of those fish and earth in the manner above related, near a fence where a field of wheat was growing on the opposite side. The wheat near the heap soon changed its color and grew luxuriant; and at harvest yielded nearly double the quantity of the other part of the field. He is confident that the wheat could derive no nourishment from the heap or compost by its being washed by rains to the ground on the other side of the fence where the wheat grew, and could be affected only by the effluvia arising from the putrefaction of the fish and absorbed by the leaves of the wheat.*

2. Letters from Prof. C. A. Goessmann, on the agricultural value of menhaden fertilizers.

AMHERST, MASS., October 6, 1877. DEAR SIR: In answer to your favor of the 2d inst., requesting me to state whether my views regarding the character and the agricultural value of the menhaden fish-fertilizers are fully expressed in my official reports, I take pleasure to reply that my third annual report, which is published in the twenty-third annual report of the secretary of the Massachusetts State Board of Agriculture (1875 to 1876), contains the most detailed exposition of my opinions regarding that subject. Well-prepared fishrefuse from our menhaden fish-rendering works are justly considered equal to the best branch of our home manufactured nitrogenous phosphates in commercial and agricultural value. Fish-fertilizers repair to some extent the injury which agriculture suffers from the customary wasteful sewage system of our large cities; to secure an increased supply is worthy of the most careful consideration from an economical stand-point. The due appreciation of our fish-fertilizers suffers still from their variable composition; they differ quite frequently largely in moisture, and are, as a general rule, too coarse to secure speedy action. A more uniform mode of rendering and a more satisfactory mode of drying and grinding are very desirable for obvious reasons. To separate the rendering business from the manufacture of the fertilizers promises better chances for the removal of the present difficulties. I am informed that a patent has been secured to abstract the fat more thoroughly by some chemical process-I presume by means of bisulphide of

Communications made to the society, relative to manures, by Ezra L'Hommedieu, esq. <Transactions of the Society for the Promotion of Agriculture, Arts, and Manufactures, instituted in the State of New York. Vol. I, 1801, pp. 65-67.

carbon or benzine-yet I cannot vouch for the correctness of that statement; to render but slightly the fish mass and to abstract the remainder of the fat subsequently with some suitable liquid, benzine, &c., would be a step in the right direction. I found 18 per cent. of fat in dried fishscraps; a good Norwegian fish-guano contains frequently but from 2.5 to 3 per cent. of fat, and is ground to a fine powder. The entire removal of the fat favors the drying of the fish mass and increases its percentage of nitrogen and phosphoric acid, which in turn raises the commercial value of the resulting material. The feeding of the fish-guano as a rich article of food to our domesticated herbivorous animals, as sheep, &c., has engaged of later years considerable attention on the part of scientific investigators as a more economical mode of using fish for fertilizing purposes. The German experiment stations at Proskau and at Hohenheim have published of late interesting confirmatory results. I take the liberty to inclose a page of printed matter, which contains a fair statement of present values of fertilizing substances; it is taken out of my fourth annual report on "commercial fertilizers," and may prove of interest to you. Offering my services most cheerfully in case my opinion on any particular point should be desirable, I remain

Very respectfully, yours,

Prof. G. BROWN GOODE,

Washington, D. C.

C. A. GOESSMANN.

AMHERST, MASS., November 24, 1877. DEAR SIR: I sent to day by mail such of my reports as are still on hand. I regret that I have no copy of my third report, which contains the most detailed discussion on fish and fish fertilizers. I presume by writing to Hon. Charles L. Flint, secretary of the Massachusetts State Board of Agriculture, Boston, for his annual report of 1875 to 1876, which contains my third report, you may be able to secure a copy. A carefully dried and finely ground fish is considered to be one of our best substitutes for the Peruvian guano, which is formed from the excretions of fish-eating animals, as sea-birds, &c. To secure a similar speedy influ ence on the growth of plants, it is customary to compost fish with soil in the usual manner a month or two previous to the designed use. The flesh of fish coming from the rendering vats is in an excellent condition for rapid disintegration; the same may be said regarding the fish-bones. An addition of sulphuric acid to fresh fish-refuse from the oil-press exerts a beneficial influence on the gradual disintegration of the organic matter and the bones, securing at the same time the entire amount of nitrogen by rendering the ammonia formed non-volatile. Larger quantities of sulphuric acid produce an increased amount of soluble phosphoric acid. A good fish-guano belongs to our richest nitrogenous materials for manuring purposes. An addition of soluble phosphates in many in

stances aids in economizing its nitrogen, and thereby lessens the expenses for the production of many of our farm crops. Potash compounds added to fish-guano tend to produce a more complete fertilizer, and therefore renders its use safer wherever larger proportions of potash compounds are essential for the crops under cultivation. Fish-guano, like Peruvian guano, is very deficient in potassa. To render the fish before work. ing them into fertilizers is not only good economy as far as the gain of the oil is concerned, it favors also a more rapid disintegration of the organic matter by allowing the moisture freely to permeate the entire The more the fat has been removed previous to their incoporation into the soil, the more speedy will be their disintegration and subsequent diffusion in the soil. Oil appears also to be indifferent to plant-growth.

mass.

Wishing that these short discussions of your special inquiries may be not without interest to you, I remain

Respectfully, yours,

Prof. G. B. GOODE,

Middletown, Conn.

C. A. GOESSMANN.

3. A Description of the factory of the Pacific Guano Company, at Wood's Holl, Mass.

Menhaden scrap is used to a considerable extent for the purpose of securing the desired proportion of nitrogen (ammonia) in the manufacture of those commercial fertilizers known as superphosphates. By many manufacturers it is used only incidentally, their chief reliance being bird-guano or the dried refuse of the slaughter-houses. The Pacific Guano Company of Boston, however, make it their base for ammonia, and use it as a principal ingredient of their manufactured guano. This company was established in 1861 by a number of ship-owners in search of business for their unemployed vessels. Having purchased Howland's Island in the Southern Pacific, where there was a rich deposit of birdguano, they established their business on Spectacle Island, in Boston Harbor, and here they carried their guano, and, having dried it in the vats of the deserted salt-works, put it up in bags for the market. After a time it was suggested that the guano might be improved by the admixture of refuse fish, and that the ammonia lost by exposure to the weather might thus be replaced. In this way the use of menhaden chum, already well known as a manure, was introduced into the manufacture.

In 1863 the works were removed to Wood's Holl, Barnstable County, Massachusetts, with the intention of capturing the fish needed, and after extracting the oil, applying the pumice to the manufacture of

guano.

To this end an extensive outfit of vessels and nets was obtained and a force of men employed. The location, however, proved to be unfavor able, and after five years' trial the fishery project was abandoned. At this point, however, there was little difficulty in procuring the necessary supply of fish-scrap from the oil-works on Narragansett Bay and Long Island Sound.

About 1866 the supply of guano on Howland's Island having become nearly exhausted, its place was gradually supplied by the phosphate of lime brought from Swan Island, and two years later by the South Carolina phosphates.

The use of the bird-guano, from which the company originally took its name, has been entirely discontinued, though for some years it was the custom to add a small percentage of that substance. The mineral phosphates are found to supply its place very satisfactorily.

The company has two factories: that at Wood's Holl and another near Charleston, S. C. The capacity of the latter is about two-thirds of the former, although the working force is about the same. That at Wood's Hole, which may be considered a representative establishment, is situated on Long Neck, about half a mile northwest of the village. The factory buildings are very extensive, covering nearly two acres of land, and are used exclusively in the manufacture of the guano, and sulphuric acid used in its development, and for storing the raw materials.

A gang of about 85 men is employed, one-third of whom are engaged in loading and unloading wharf-work, one-third in manufacture, and one-third in packing for shipment. At one time as many as 125 men were employed, but the introduction of labor-saving machinery has rendered a considerable reduction of the force practicable, while at the same time the working capacity of the factory has been largely increased. A steam-engine of 120 horse-power is used; also two small hoistingengines for loading and discharging cargoes. The ingredients of manufacture are few and simple, viz:-fish-scrap, mineral phosphate of lime, sulphuric acid, and incidentally kaiuit, and sometimes common salt.

The average annual purchase of scrap amounts to not far from 10,000 tons. It is stored in bulk in great wooden sheds, and is sometimes retained a long time before it can be used. At the time of writing, August 16, 1875, a large quantity remains over from the previous year. The store-houses cover an area of 16,640 square feet, and the scrap is stowed to the depth of 15 feet, giving a storage space of 159,600 cubic feet.*

The mineral phosphate is obtained chiefly from South Carolina, from

*In a letter of October 8, 1877, Mr. A. F. Crowell states: "In our business here we consumed for the year 1875-'76, 708 tous dry scrap (menhaden), value $20,164; 2,338 tons crude scrap, value $31,682; producing 13,010 tons soluble Pacific guano; 1876–77, 2,176 tons dry scrap, value $57,784; 5,188 tons crude scrap, value $62,248; producing 11,398 tons soluble Pacific guano. Our works at Charleston usually consume one-third less than here."