AQUATIC TRODUCTS AS FEKTILIZERS. 259 



3 or 4 quarts of oil to the barrel. This oil is of good color and is 

 readily sold for menhaden oil, but the scrap is not quite so desirable 

 for fertilizer as that from menhaden. Skates and bellows-fish are com- 

 paratively dry, yielding less than one pint of oil to the barrel of fish. 



Owing to much contention resulting from the claim that with the 

 menhaden large quantities of choice food-fish are taken and rendered 

 at the factories, the United States P^ish Commission, in the season of 

 1894, made a thorough inspection of the catches made by two repre- 

 sentative steamers of the fleet. This examination showed that in a 

 catch of 27,965,750 fish only one-third of 1 per cent were food-fish, 

 and only a very small proportion of this percentage was of choice and 

 popular varieties. "As a general thing not enough desirable food- 

 fish are taken bj" the menhaden steamers to keep the vessels' crews 

 regularly supplied with fresh fish. As a rule, all the food-fish caught 

 are eaten either by the crews or by the factorj^ hands, but it occasion- 

 ally happens that schools of blue-fish, butter-fish, shad, river herring, 

 etc. , are taken and more fish are thus provided than can be consumed. "'^ 



The menhaden factories are distributed along the coast at points 

 convenient to the fishing-grounds. They vary in size and equipment 

 according to the amount of invested capital and the degree of modern- 

 ness. Some are of primitive type, consisting of two or three large 

 kettles or trj^-pots and a simple press, the whole, with the accompany- 

 ing equipment, costing only a few hundred dollars, and are capable of 

 handling only 300,000 or 400,000 fish annually. From that they in- 

 crease in size and capacity until the amount of invested capital in a 

 single plant reaches half a million dollars, giving a working capacity 

 of 200,000,000 fish annually. 



COOKING AND PRESSING THE FISH. 



The following account of the methods of the menhaden industry 

 represents observations and inquiries made by the writer during the 

 last four years, and especially in the season 1901. Most of the factories 

 were visited either in 1901 or previously, and all details in the process 

 of manufacture were inspected. The writer wishes to acknowledge 

 in this connection the courtesy of Capt. N. B. Church, general man- 

 ager of the Fisheries Company; Mr. H. II. Luther, superintendent of 

 the Promised Land plant of that company, and of Capt. J. F. Bussels, 

 of the Atlantic Fisheries Company. 



There are two principal processes involved in the nianufacture of 

 oil and scrap from menhaden, viz, (1) cooking and pressing the fish 

 and (2) drying or otherwise preserving the scrap, the methods vary- 

 ing according to the facilities of the plant. The great bulk of the 

 fish are handled at large factories thoroughly equipped with modern 

 machinery, including bucket elevators, automatic conveyors, contin- 

 uous steam-cookers, hydraulic presses, artificial driers, etc. 



Some of the factories, especially in Virginia, are quite small, with 



a Bulletin United States Fish Commission for 1895, p. 297. 



