182 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



proving a profitable business. Yankee-like, everybody is into it, 

 saving (oil) at the spigot, but wasting (chum) at the bung. But 

 within a few years, either experiment or accident discovered that the 

 chum — hitherto food for maggots — would furnish an important source 

 of fertility, as it decomposed rapidly, and acted with great energy 

 in hastening the growth of plants. Some of the more knowing ones 

 began to spread it upon their mowing fields, and of the result, " see- 

 ing is to believe." Upon sandy fields, where grass "no-how 

 wouldn't " grow, a single year's spreading produced two tons per 

 acre. If applied consecutively, it will after a year or two impart a 

 fishy taste to the hay not relished by cattle. 



As the " hite " of fishing is in the heat of summer, when the 

 chum cannot be preserved any length of time, sufiBcient care is not 

 had in spreading — the spreader, for the time, being more of fisher- 

 man than farmer — hence the cause for the complaint. 



In the compost heap or elsewhere, above the sea or underneath, 

 it will make its mark. When science shall discover how to preserve 

 it as an article of commerce, pogies will be caught for the chum 

 and not for the oil. Already it is known that if immediately from 

 the press it is packed in good barrels and salted with lime, it will 

 keep for several weeks. 



That down in the "deep caverns of the briny sea " there are other 

 forms of fertility, there's no doubt, but 'till those already known are 

 fully appreciated and property applied, why should Neptune be in- 

 voked to "give, give?" 



Marine Manures. 



By B. C. Bailey, Bath. 



With regard to these, I will at present merely say, that the kinds 

 used in this vicinity are taken from the bed of Stevens' or New 

 Meadow's Eiver, so called, when the tide is out, at low water, and 

 from the inlets and coves, or arms of the sea around and about the 

 sea shore, and from the rocks and islands about the shore at low water. 



Stevens' or New Meadow's River, is an arm of the sea running 

 inland perhaps eight or ten miles, with no fresh water streams run- 

 ning into it of any note, leaving the bed of the river very much im- 



