82 [Senate 



converted into manure and spread on the soil, add to the value of 

 the wheat or corn grown, not enough perhaps to buy a valuble new 

 one, but not unfrequently more than the worth of the original animal. 

 A more disgusting sight can scarcely be imagined, than to see the 

 fences and trees around a farmer's yard dressed out with dead lambs 

 or other defunct animals in the spring season. All such, should be 

 buried at once, and thus made available in other forms. 



Of the substances named above, fish is the one most commonly used 

 as a manure. In the vicinity of the sea, large quantities of fish are 

 y.^j^ annually used in enriching the soil. This is particularly the 

 case on Long Island and in Rhode Island. They are some- 

 times spread broadcast on the eaith and plowed inj at other times 

 deposited in the hills of corn; sometimes spread over the meadows 

 after the crop is mowed, and allowed to putrefy in the open air. 

 The stench, where the putrefaction goes on in the open air, is intole- 

 rable; and can only be endured by those whose olfactories have been 

 accustomed to the nuisance. This is a most wasteful practice, and 

 should long ago have been abandoned. Treated in this way, but a 

 small part of the actual value of the fish is realized; and it is not to 

 be wondered at, that where the methods of using this manure are so 

 different, widely different ideas of its value should be entertained. 

 Fish should never be used fresh, or thrown at once upon the soil. 

 The true way of preparing them as manure, is to make them into 

 compost, by placing them in layers with muck, rock weed, peat, or 

 even common loam, to putrefy. Where the soil is heavy or incli- 

 ning to clay, where the compost is to be used, common shore sand, 

 containing as it does large quantities of particles of carbonate of 

 lime, will be found useful as a composting ingredient with the fish. 

 When the fish are decayed or putrefied, the mass should be dug over, 

 the parts thoroughly mixed, and if much ammonia or offensive gas is 

 liberated, a covering ot earth should be given, and the mass be allow- 

 ed further to ferment before using. In this way, fish never fail of 

 being a valuable manure. Rock weed, eel grass, or in short any of 

 those vegetable or animal matters that abound on the sea shore, may 

 be advantageously used in the preparation of these composts. 



There are many manufactories, particularly those of skins, furs and 

 Refuse of ^ool, where large quantities of manures of the most pow- 

 Faetories. gj-ful kind are annually suffered to go to waste, though to 

 a much less extent than formerly. The refuse of such establishments, 



