194 KEPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



N.— MENHADEN^ AIs^D OTHER FISH Aj^D THEIR PRODUCTS 

 AS RELATED TO AGRICULTURE. 



By W. O. Atwater. 



Introductory note. 



267. Mr. Goode has placed in my bands a number of documents, 

 manuscripts, and letters concerning the use of fish, and particularly 

 menhaden, as fertilizers, with a request for a statement of the more 

 important facts and principles that have to do with the application of 

 these materials to the improvement of agriculture. 



The time allowed for this work is, unfortunately, so short as to forbid 

 anything more than a hasty putting together of the data immediately at 

 hand, in the form of a brief review of the history and a still more in- 

 complete outline of the results of scientific investigation and praclical 

 experience concerning the preparation, properties, and uses of fish as a 

 fertilizer and as food for stock. I hope that this may serve to explain 

 the chief practical bearings of the subject, to show its impoitance, and 

 lead to its more thorough investigation hereafter. 



Tbe employment of fish products in agriculture offers a singularly 

 forcible illustration of the slowness with which the worth of some of the 

 most valuable materials is recognized, and of the need of scientific inves- 

 tigation and experiment to aid practical skill in utilizing them most 

 profitably. 



The loss to the agriculture of our country at large, and particularly 

 our sea-board States, from tbe waste of fish that might be utilized, the 

 wrong manufacture of tbe materials that are saved, the export of the 

 best products to Europe, tbe uneconomical use as fertilizers of what 

 we save and keep at home, and from the almost entire neglect to devote 

 the products to their most profitable purpose, feeding stock and enrich- 

 ing the manure of the farm, if it were capable of accurate estimate, 

 could not fall short of some millions of dollars annually. This is due 

 mainly to tbe fact that the principles that underlie tbe right economiz- 

 ing of fish are not generally understood, and, for that matter, are not 

 yet fully learned. It is only lately that science has joined with prac- 

 tice in studying and improving tbe manufacture and use of fish prod- 

 ucts for agricultural purposes. The best work in investigation has 

 been done in Europe; its results come to us but tardily. Manufactur- 

 ers hesitate to apply and farmers are stiUslower to use them. Every- 

 thing that brings new knowledge or extends the understanding of 

 ■what is known must, then, be most valuable. 



