284 



THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



'COMPOSITION OF FISH MANURE AND SOME SORTS OF 



ANIMAL REFUSE. 



Although the importance of all sorts of animal 

 matter as a manure has long been familiar, and has 

 been frequently insisted on, both by science and 

 practice, the immense quantity of such refuse has 

 hitherto become very partially available. The main 

 difficulty which has stood in the way of their pro- 

 fitable application has been the want of a good pro- 

 cess by which they can be converted into a portable 

 form. The enormous quantities of fish refuse 

 annually produced in Newfoundland, and even on 

 some parts of our own coasts, has been frequently 

 pointed out as a source from which agriculture 

 might derive valuable assistance. Considerable 

 interest was excited, some time since, by the pro- 

 posal of various methods by which the desirable 

 object of rendering fish offal portable might be at- 

 tained, and very important results were anticipated 

 from them. As yet, these anticipations have not 

 been fulfilled, material diflSculties having been en- 

 countered in carrying most of the processes into 

 operation on the large scale, some of the plans pro- 

 posed having proved too expensive in practice, 

 while others are so obviously unpractical that no 

 one has been found willing to invest capital in 

 carrying them out. The error, in most cases, has 

 lain in the employment of expensive machinery, 

 which the conditions under which such a manufac- 

 ture must be carried out may be said to preclude. 

 It is probable that the quantity of fish offal to be 

 obtained at any one spot will not generally be very 

 large, and will be chiefly collected at one period of 

 the year, so that the machinery would require to be 

 sufficient to work up with rapidity the whole of the 

 offal produced, and would lie idle during the rest 

 of the year. It is in some such way that most of 

 the plans have hitherto failed ; but I have recently 

 analyzed a sample made by a patent procees, which 

 is said to be simple and inexpensive; and should 

 the manufacture yield, on the large scale, a material 

 of uniform quality, and equal to that I have ex- 

 amined, it will undoubtedly prove a very important 

 addition to the hst of ammoniacal manures. The 

 manure was in the form of a yellowish powder, in 

 grains about the size of fine oatmeal, remarkably 

 uniform in appearance, very dry, and almost devoid 

 of smell. Its composition was : — 



Water, . . . . s.OO 

 Fatty matters, . . . 7. 20 



Nitrogenous organic matters, 7 1. 46 

 Pnosphate of lime, . . 8.70 



Alkaline salts, . . . 3. so 

 Silica, .... 0.84 



100.00 



Nitrogen, . . . .11.25 



Equal to ammonia, . . 13.68 



Phosphoric acid in the alkaline 



salts equal to 1.41 phosphate 



of lime .... 0.65 



There can be no doubt that, if fish manure, of 

 equally good quality, can be produced, a large de- 

 mand for it will soon be created. It is, in fact, a 

 very valuable manure, and its price may be esti- 

 mated very readily, according to the mode em- 

 ployed for Peruvian guano, by taking the com- 

 mercial value of each of its important manurial 

 constituents as derived from other sources. The 

 values usually adopted by chemists have been at 

 the rate of ^d. per lb. for phosphate, and 6d.perlb. 

 for ammonia; or, expressed in tons, £6 for the for- 

 mer, and £56 per ton for the latter. Upon this 

 plan, and taking all the phosphates under one cate- 

 gory, we estimate the value of 100 tons of the fish 

 manure as follows : — 



13.63 of ammonia at £56 



10.11 of phosphate of lime at £6 * . 



Value of 100 tons 



£826 



or almost exactly £8 5s. per ton ; and this will 

 probably be its average value. At the present time, 

 however, owing to the high price of bones and 

 ammonia, its value would considerably exceed this. 

 Sulphate of ammonia is now selling at £l6 per ton, 

 and at this price ammonia is worth £64, and phos- 

 phate of lime can scarcely be reckoned under £10 

 per ton, bones at present selling as high as £6, or 

 even £6 10s. If these data be taken for calculation, 

 the value of the fish manure comes to be — 



13.68 of ammonia at £64 . . , £875 

 10.11 of phosphate of hme at £10 . 100 



Value of 100 tons . . . £975 



or £9 15s. per ton. In connexion with this subject, 

 it may be well to observe, that there are many 

 sources of animal matter which must, at the present 

 moment, be entirely wasted, although they might, 

 with a little management, be turned to good ac- 

 count. Of these, perhaps, the most prominent is 

 the blood, and other offal of slaughter-houses, in 

 our small towns and villages. In the larger towns, 

 the blood is collected, although not very carefully, 

 and finds its way to certain classes of manufactories' 

 in which it is employed ; but in country places it 

 is, for the most part, allowed to escape. It would 

 be a matter of some interest to ascertain the annual 

 value of the blood and offal thus lost, which is un- 

 doubtedly very large, and a great part of which 

 might easily be saved by a very small expenditure 

 of care. Such, however, is the carelessness of the 

 workmen employed in slaughter-houses, that I 

 have been informed, that, even in the large towns, 

 it is with difficulty that they can be persuaded to 

 save the blood, although its price is really consid- 

 erable. Fresh blood contains nitrogen, equal to 

 about 3 per cent, of ammonia, and is worth about 

 2d. per gallon, or nearly £2 per ton; and any far- 



