HISTORY OP THE AMERICAN MENHADEN. 203 



nearly a ton of straw. The straw sells with us for about twenty dollars 

 a ton, and rye is worth from ninety cents to a dollar a bushel ; so that 

 for a very small expenditure for manure I f^et very satisfactory crops of 

 rye. * * * A year ago last summer I used a ton of fish scrap on 

 half an acre of land. It was nothing but gravel. There was hardly 

 any vegetable matter ; none but what had grown out of the gravel, and, 

 perhaps, a little washed from the surrounding land. I did not pay any- 

 thing for the land; the owner did not consider it worth anything. I 

 got a glorious crop of corn, cabbages, and potatoes on that little piece 

 of land, by the use of a ton of fish scrap." 



With regard to the value of green and dried scrap and the loss in 

 drying, Mr. Clift says: 



"As it comes from the press, after all the oil has been pressed out of 

 it that can be gotten out by the strongest hydraulic pressure, there is 

 still a great deal of moisture in it — 40 or 50 per cent. As it lies on 

 the platform under cover, there is, of course, a constant loss of moisture, 

 but there is also a loss of ammonia, which is very valuable, so that I 

 am not able to say whether the fish-scrap is any more valuable after it 

 has lain a month or two in the house than when it first comes from the 

 press. I think I should prefer to take it as it comes from the press. I 

 think the ammonia which is lost is worth more than will be gained by 

 the evaporation of the water. Fish-scrap, at $12 to $15 per ton, is the 

 cheapest manure we can buy. It is the only commercial fertilizer I have 

 bought for the last six or eight years. I do not invest in superphos- 

 phates or bone-dust. 1 would invest in the latter if I could get a pure 

 article, but when it is half plaster of Paris I do not know what I am buy- 

 ing. But this article, when it comes from the factory, is generally fish 

 scrap and nothing else. Jt always produces just about the same result. 

 You can depend upon it. If you apply one or two tons to the acre, you 

 know what you will gain by its use if it is properly put into the soil 

 and you have a fair season. I think it is a perfectly secure investment 

 for the farmer to make." 



Experience of Mr. Hall and Mr. Loveland. 



273. Some of the discussion which followed is worthy of note. Mr. 

 Hall, of Wallingford, remarked: 



" My experience in regard to fish-scrap is that when it comes from the 

 press it is about 65 per cent, water. Now if that is worth $12 to $15 a 

 ton to carry back ten or twenty miles into the country, when you come 

 to add the freight and the inconvenience of handling it to the freight, I 

 should consider the dried the cheapest. I have used a great many tons 

 myself, and I have always used 'the dry as the most economical. I have 

 been so situated I could have either, but I preferred the dry ; and as Mr. 

 Clift has said, by analysis, it was a cheap manure at the prices at which 

 it was sold." Mr. Clift replied : " Mr. Hall means a different thing by 

 dried fish guano, from what some gentlemen do by ' dried fish.' He 



