THE WASTE AND CONSERVATION OF PLANT FOOD, 223 



The quantity of albumiuoids in the water-free substance of the flesh 

 of fish is enormously high as compared with that of ordinary foods. In 

 round numbers it may be said to be about 75 per cent of the total water- 

 free substance. In some cases the albuminous matter, or in other words 

 the protein, makes up almost the whole of the water-free substance, as 

 in the case of a brook trout, quoted by Atwater, in which the percent- 

 age of protein in the dry flesh was 93.25; and of a perch, in which it 

 was 93.33; and of a sea bass, in which it was 95.88; and a red snapper, 

 in which it was 95.38, and others in which even a higher percentage 

 was reported. 



It is thus seen that the ordinary fishes of the ocean collect especially 

 the two great elements of i)lant food, pliosphorus and nitrogen. 



Oysters and other shellfishes collect not only large quantities of 

 phosphorus and nitrogen, but also larger quantities of carbonate of 

 lime. As has been intimated in another place, it is entirely probable 

 that in earlier times, when the sea was richer in phosphoric acid than 

 at present, considerable quantities of phosphate of lime may have been 

 secreted with the carbonate of lime in the. shell. At the present, time, 

 however, the phosphate of lime has almost or quite disappeared from 

 the matters of which shells are composed. 



While the art of fishing is j)racticed chiefly for the purpose of gaining 

 human food, yet in many large fishing districts the fish waste becomes 

 valuable fertilizing material. Some kinds of fish, as the menhaden, are, 

 however, collected chiefly for their fertilizing value. The use of fish 

 for fertilizing jnirposes is not new. A most interesting description of 

 the use of agricultural fertilizers by the American Indians is given by 

 Goode.^ As long ago as 1875 the value of the nitrogen derived from the 

 menhaden was estimated to be about $l},000,()00. In the year 1878 it is 

 estimated that 200,000 tons of menhaden were captured between Cape 

 Ileury and the Bay of Fundy. The oil is first extracted from the fish for 

 commercial purposes and afterward the residue is dried and ground and 

 sold to farmers and fertilizer manufacturers. For a complete history 

 of the menhaden the articles of Prof. G. Brown Goode in the Report of 

 the United States Commissioner of Fish and Fisheries for 1877 and 1879 

 may be consulted. 



The honor of teaching the American colonists the use of artificial 

 fertilizers belongs, without doubt, to an Indian named Squanto. In 

 Governor Bradford's History of Plimouth Plantation is given an 

 account of the early agricultural experiences of the Plymouth colo- 

 nists. In April, 1621, at the close of the first long, dreary winter, " they 

 (as many as were able) began to plant their corne, in which service 

 S(pianto (an Indian) stood them in great stead, showing them both ye 

 manner how to set it, and after how to dress and tend it. Also he tould 

 them, axcepte they got fish and set with it (in these old grounds) it 

 would come to nothing; and he showed them yt in ye middle of Aprili, 



'American Naturalist, yol. 14, July, 1880, No. 7, page 473 et sgq. 



