230 EEPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISIIEEIES. 



TABLE B. 



Kind of fertilizer. 



Dry gronnd fish-scrap 



Dry ground flsli-scrap 



Dry ground fisli-scrap, old, 187C . 

 Dry ground tish-scrnp, new, 1877 



Dry ground iish-scrap 



Diy ground fisli-scrap 



Dry ground Iish-scrap 



Dry giound flsh-scrap 



Dry ground iish-scrap 



Dry ground flsh-scrap 



Dry ground fish-scrap 



Dry groruid iish-scrap 



Average 



rish by Adamson's process 



Fish by Adamson's xjrocess 



I'isb by Goodalo's process 



Per ct. 

 10.75 



1C.59 

 23.95 



19.57 

 9.03 



11.38 



10.74 

 9.76 



11.19 



13. C6 



•J. 91 



3.07 



11. '15 



^ 



Per ct. 

 8.52 

 8.21 

 7.35 

 7.30 

 9. 20 

 8.77 

 7.08 

 8.04 

 8. :a 

 8.43 

 7.77 

 8.78 



8.24 



10.78 

 10.74 

 10. 24 



a 11' 

 c "S-a 



Per 

 9. 



9.30 



11.32 

 11.15 

 11. 50 



Per ct. 



8. 94 

 7.30 



8. 12 



2.07 

 4." 64 



Waste from faulty mamfacture and use of fish fertilizers. 



300. An enormous loss results to our agriculture from the waste of fish 

 that might be saved, from faulty manufacture of fish into fertilizers, 

 from wrong use of the fertilizers when made, and from the exportation 

 of the best products to Europe, where their value is better understood. 

 This loss will bo prevented in proportion as the nature and uses of fish 

 manures are learned. 



51. The use of fish fertilizers in agriculture. 



Chemistry of ])lant mitrition. 



301. Kot only farmers and merchants, but many manufacturers as 

 well, have a very poor understanding of what constitutes the value of 

 fish as fertilizers, and how they may be most economically utilized. It 

 will be well, therefore, to consider briefly some of the principles that 

 decide the value and usefulness of fertilizers in general, and of fish 

 l)roducts in i^articular. 



Fish manures, like other commercial fertilizers, are valuable because 

 they supply plant-food which crops need and soils fail to furnish. Their 

 main value depends upon their content of nitrogen and phosphoric 

 acid. These are the most valuable and costly ingredients of commercial 

 fertilizers. 



Plants, like animals, require food for life and growth. A part of the 

 food of plants is supplied from the atmosphere, the remainder is de- 

 rived from the soil. No ordinary cultivated i^laut can thrive without a 

 suliicient supply of each of a number of substances ueedcd for its food. 

 With an abundance of all of these in forms in which the plant can use 

 them, and with other circumstances favorable, the plant will flourit^h 

 and the yield be large. But if the available supply of any one of them 



