HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN MEKHADEN. 487 



stances aids in ocouomizing its nitrogen, and thereby lessens the expenses 

 for the production of many of our Tarm crops. Potash compounds added 

 to fish-guano tend to produce a more complete iertilizer, and therefore 

 renders its use safer wherever larger i)roportions of potash compounds 

 are essential for the crops under cultivation. Fish-guano, like Peru- 

 vian guano, is very deficient in [lotassa. To render the fish before work- 

 ing them into fertilizers is not only good economy as far as the gain of 

 the oil is concerned, it iavors also a more rapid disintegration of the 

 organic matter by allowing the moisture freely to permeate the entire 

 mass. Tbe more the fat has been removed previous to their incopora- 

 tion into the soil, the more speedy will be their disintegration and sub- 

 sequent diii'usiou in the soil. Oil appears also to be indifferent to 

 plant-growth. 



Wishing that these short discussions of your special inquiries may be 

 not without interest to you, I remain 

 Itespectfully, yours, 



C. A. GOESSMANN. 



Prof. G. B. GooDE, 



Middlctown, Conn. 



3. A Description of the factory of the Pacific Guano Company, at Wood's 



Moll, Mass. 



Menhaden scrap is used to a considerable extent for the purpose of 

 securing the desired proportion of nitrogen (ammonia) in the manu- 

 facture of those commercial fertilizers known as superijuosphates. By 

 many manufacturers it is used only incidentally, their chief reliance 

 being bird-guano or the dried refuse of the slaughter-houses. The Pacific 

 Guano Company of Boston, however, make it their base for ammonia, and 

 use it as a principal ingredient of their manufactured guano. This com- 

 pany was established in 18G1 by a number of shipowners in search of 

 business for their unemployed vessels. Having purchased Howland's 

 Island in the Southern Pacific, where there was a rich deposit of bird- 

 guano, they established their business on Spectacle Island, in Boston 

 Harbor, and here they carried their guano, and, having dried it in the 

 vats of the deserted salt-works, put it up in bags for the market. After 

 a time it was suggested that the guano might be improved by the admix- 

 ture of refuse fish, and that the ammonia lost by exposure to the 

 weather might thus be replaced. In this way the use of menhaden 

 chum, already well known as a manure, was introduced into the manu- 

 facture. 



In 1SG3 the works were removed to Wood's Holl, Barnstable County, 

 Massachusetts, with the intention of capturing the fisli needed, and 

 after extracting the oil, applying the pumice to the manufacture of 

 guano. 



