HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN MENHADEN. 213 



Early manvfactnre in England. 



284. From an article in the " Farmers' Magazine" (London) for August, 

 1859, by Samuel Otsler, of Great Yarmouth, wLo claims to have discov- 

 ered a method preferable to that of I3e Molon or Pettit, a iitvf para- 

 graphs are quoted by Mr. Goodale : 



" The enormous consumption of guano, its high price, and extensive 

 adulteration, have led to a desire of an auxiliary or substitute. The 

 most obvious source is the fishery. * * * "What we require is a 

 simple, cheap, and efit'ectual mode of separating the i>arts which are 

 needless for manure — the water, gelatine, and oil, the two latter suflB 

 ciently pure to be commercially valuable, and leaving the fiber, bones, 

 and scales in a state fit for keeping and for use. It has been ascer- 

 tained by experiment, and confirmed by actual working, that the refuse 

 and waste fish may be thus converted, and the gelatine and oil collected 

 by a process which I have discovered. The machinery and the process 

 are simple, inexpensive, and effectual. The principle of the manufacture 

 is founded upon the fact that when fish or flesh is subjected to a long- 

 continued and moderate heat the fluids separate, dissolve the gelatine, 

 and leave the fibrous and bony solids. This is easily shown by putting- 

 meat or fish into a flask and setting it in boiling water, corking the 

 flask when fully heated. The fluids will gradually separate, while the 

 flesh will, after a time, be left a dry and insipid residuum." 



Mr. Osier gives the results of several analyses by Professors Way 

 and Voelcker and Dr. Stoeckhardt, by an average of which it appears to 

 contain about 12 per cent, ammonia and 7 per cent, of phosphates. 



Other European manufacture. 



285. In the Paris International Exhibition of 1855, among the speci- 

 mens of artificial manure was one, ^^ engrais poissoji,''^ prepared from fish, 

 which, " after being steamed, were pressed into cakes and dried." It 

 was " said to contain from 10 to 12 per cent, of nitrogen, and from 16 to 

 22 per cent, of phosphate (= 7^ to 10 per cent, phosphoric acid). The 

 price was about $35 per ton. 



On the coast of the North Sea, at Varel, in Oldenburg, immense num- 

 bers of a kind of small crab {Crangon vulgaris)^ called in German Gran- 

 aien, or Granalen, are taken, dried, ground without any steaming, and 

 thus made into what is called " Granat guano." 



On the coast of the Baltic Sea, at Labagiehnen, near Labiau, in East 

 Prussia, considerable fish refuse has been manufactured into a fertilizer. 



The following are analyses of the articles just named : 



Nitrogen, Phosphoric 

 per cent, acid, per ct. 



Fish guano, Pettit 9,1 7.6 



Fish guano, Green, No. I 9.1 1.6 



Fish guano, Green, No. II - 13. 8 0.2 



Fish guano, Do Molon and Thurneysseu 11-6 ll^- 1 



Granat guano 1 1. - ~- '"^ 



