204 EEPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



means the article spread upon a platform, and made as dry as it can be 

 in that way. What is termed ' dried fish ' is another thing. It will 

 take from two to two and a half tons of fresh fish to make a ton of dry, 

 and after that has lain in a tight building for some time, it will take two 

 tons of that to make a ton of the dry guano. When the green manure 

 is spread out and immediately dried in the sun, there is no loss of ammo- 

 nia, but when it is kept in a pile, of course putrefaction begins, and as 

 it advances there is loss of ammonia. There is no considerable loss of 

 ammonia by drying in the sun and of course the dry manure, finely ground, 

 is very much more valuable than that which is dried in a heap where 

 there is a great loss of ammonia." 

 Mr. Lovelaud said of his experience with fish-scrap : 

 " I would say that I have had considerable experience with fish-scrap, 

 having used it for the last eight or ten years. I bought it as it is pre- 

 pared by the companies at Milford, where it is produced as a superphos- 

 phate, and sold at the rate of $45 a ton. I have used it with Bradley's 

 superphosphate, with Coe's and with Wilson's on tobacco and other crops, 

 and wherever I have used it in connection with these high-priced manures, 

 I have found that the fish manure was fully equal to them ; it bore up 

 its crop as well as any of the commercial fertilizers in the market. I 

 have bought it in the green state mostly, in bags and barrels, and it has 

 cost me about $23 a ton to get it up to the north part of the State. I 

 have not used this fish-scrap much by spreading it upon lands in its raw 

 state, nor by putting it into the hill, as they do in Lyme, and on the 

 coast, in raising potatoes and the like. I have seen some instances in our 

 town where it has been spread upon the ground in a raw state, and then 

 the tobacco set, and the effect has been to stop the growth of the tobacco. 

 It has been too powerful in that condition for the tobacco to grow upon 

 it j and where it has been used in that way, I have never seen half a crop 

 of tobacco. My method has been to compost it, invariably, and I be- 

 lieve that is the true method of using such a fertilizer as that. It is a 

 fertilizer having all the elements of an organized body. It contains all 

 of the fish that we desire ; the oil that has been taken out we hold to be 

 of no use in agriculture. Coming to us in the green state from the fac- 

 tory, it has not lost any of its ammonia to speak of, and in that state it 

 must be a perfect manure, because there is no adulteration in it. In com- 

 posting it, I have used muck, treated with lime and salt — about four 

 cart-loads of muck to four or five hundred pounds of the fish, building 

 up a large pile of it, in that proportion, which, after a while, begins to 

 heat, and the whole mass is leavened and brought into oneness of con- 

 dition. The fish-scrap fertilizes the whole mass with its elements, and 

 it may then be spread upon natural grassland or cultivated ground, and 

 will invariably produce a very fine crop. It never has failed with me 

 to produce a good crop, and where I have manured grounds in that way 

 and seeded them down, I have got good crops of grass for years in suc- 

 cession afterwards." 



