HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN MENHADEN. 201 



"Its use in Maine even in this way, notwithstanding the results were 

 almost always satisfactory, except in some instances where it was used 

 in too large quantities, did not seem to extend to any great extent back 

 into the interior; and oven along the coast where farmers could get the 

 scrap for the hauling, not half of them made any use of it. When the 

 business of extracting oil from menhaden was first engaged in along 

 the coast of Hancock County, and especially in Union Kiver Bay, the 

 works were situated on shipboard, and the scrap was thrown overboard 

 into the bay. The result of this was to drive out all the deep-water 

 fish, as mackerel, cod, &c., and this was continued for many years. 

 On the first establishment of oil works at Blueliill Falls and other 

 places the scrap was given away, and farmers could get a scow-load 

 any time they wished. It is said that the farmers in the town of Brook- 

 lin first utilized the scrap by applying it to the land, and during days 

 when no catch of menhaden would give work at the factories, the men 

 would cart the scrap away and spread it as a top dressing on grass 

 lands. It was used green from the press, and on the sandy soil of that 

 town its good effects were most marked. Afterwards, it began to be 

 composted with muck or with fine loam, and was applied to potatoes and 

 grass with excellent results. As a top dressing to mowing fields it was 

 spread on after haying, and in this way was generally used fresh. Too 

 large an application was found to induce too rapid a growth of grass 

 and to cause it to rust, and it also gave a fishy flavor to the hay, not 

 relished by cattle ; but these matters were gradually learned from expe- 

 rience in its use, and as gradually mastered and overcome. As its value 

 became known its price advanced, and for several years, from about 

 1858 to 1864, it went up to $G.OO per ton." 



Experience in Connecticut. — Mr. Clift. 



272. At a meeting of the Connecticut Board of Agriculture in Decem- 

 ber, 1873, Eev. Wm. Clift, of Mystic Bridge, gave a lecture on "Marine 

 Manures."* This was followed by a discussion, in which a number of 

 the best farmers of the State took part, and is interesting, as showing 

 what the practical experience of men who have used fish scrap as ration- 

 ally as intelligent farmers do anywhere, says of its uses and value. Mr. 

 Clift said : 



"Along the shores [of the Long Island Sound] where I have lived for 

 the last twenty-five or thirty years, very large quantities of white-fish, 

 or menhaden, are taken for the purpose of making oil. Formerly they 

 were taken simply for the purpose of making manures, and were caught 

 in very large quantities all along our shore and over on Long Island, 

 in large seines, which were generally owned by companies composed of 

 farmers. These fish were carted by the farmers quite long distances, 

 spread broadcast over their fields, and left to putrefy in the open air, 

 and then along in the fall they would be plowed in for rye and for other 



* Report of Conn. Board of Agriculture, 1873, p. 197. 



