I88 MADRAS FISHERIES BULLETIN VOL. XIII, 



In another analysis the nitrogen and phosphoric acid in fish 

 guano were 8*46 and 8'66, respectively, against 5*83 and 4'8l in fish 

 manure of good quality which contained very little sand (6'86 per 

 cent) as compared with most samples. 



83. Since the manurial constituents are in organic form, viz., 

 the nitrogen in the tissues and the phosphoric acid (as phosphate 

 of lime) in the osseous parts, the manure is not so rapid in action 

 as similar inorganic materials such as ammonium sulphate, sodium 

 or potassium nitrate, calcium superphosphate, etc. On the other 

 hand this very fact lessens any tendency to loss by leaching 

 during rains or irrigation and, further, tends to improve the mecha- 

 nical condition of the soil. Moreover, since the manure has been 

 strongly boiled, the osseous matter is friable and readily disinte- 

 grates in the soil. Its action can also be quickened by powdering, 

 and, in fact, it is usually ground fine when incorporated with 

 other manurial matters by manure merchants ; on the other hand 

 when used by the ryot in a compost, such powdering is unneces- 

 sary and perhaps prejudicial; the fermentation in the compost 

 heap does all that is necessary, and there is probably less loss and 

 better admixture when the manure is in its natural j^tate of coarse 

 fragments. 



84. The following paragraphs are taken from the writer's 

 published bulletin (Fisheries Department) on the fisheries of 

 Japan :— 



" Manures- — This is a most important product, fish fertilizer being 

 the most highly valued of all manures in Japanese agriculture (see Agri- 

 cultural note). The herring and sardine are the fish almost solely used, 

 herring being enormously in excess of sardine now that the latter fish is 

 more extensively used as food, whether fresh, salted, dried, or canned. 

 The herrings are chiefly caught on the coasts of fiokkaido, the summer 

 herring being much fatter than the spring herring which is in spawn. The 

 oil is extractei by steam heating and pressure, and the scrap is then sent 

 out as manure. The annual product is about 110,000 tons, of which nine- 

 tenths to four-fifths are herring and from Hokkaido ; the value is from 

 Rs. 112 to Rs. 120 per ton or 20 to i8'7 lb. per rupee, the latter price 

 being the latest (1904) ascertained. The productive as well as pecuniary 

 value of this manure, chiefly nitrogenous but also largely phosphatic, as 

 proved in Japanese agriculture (see Agricultural note) which consumes 

 practically the whole product, strongly commends its development on our 

 own coasts and its use on our own fields so sadly defective in the above, 

 but especially in the nitrogenous, constituents. Our sardine and mackerel 



