230 EEPOKT OF COMMISSIONER OF 



TxVBLE B. 



FISH AND FISHERIES. 



Kind of fertilizer. 



Dry gronml fish-scrap 



Dry ground tisli-scrap 



Dry ground fisli-scrap, old, 1876 . 

 Dry ground Qsh-scrap, new, 1877 



Dry ground fish-scrap 



Dry ground fish-scrap 



Dry ground fish-scrap 



Dry ground flah-scraij 



Dry ground fish-scrap 



Dry ground fish-scrap 



Dry grouiul fish-scrap 



Dry ground fiah-scrap 



Average 



Fish by Adamson's process 



Fish by Adamson's process 



llsh by Goodalc's process 



Per ct. 

 10.75 



16.59 

 23. 95 



19.57 

 9.03 



11.38 



10.74 

 9.76 



11.19 



13.66 



4.91 



3.'i7 



11. 15 



8.21 

 7.35 

 7.30 

 9.26 



8.77 

 7.98 

 8.04 

 8.51 

 8.43 

 7.77 

 8.78 



8.24 



10.78 

 10.74 

 10.24 





Per ct. 

 9.54 



8.81 

 9. .59 



9.92 

 8.83 

 9.60 

 9.44 

 8.61 

 9.88 



9.36 



11. 32 

 11.15 

 11.56 



8.94 

 7.30 



2.07 

 4.6 i 



Waste from faulty manufacture and ufie of Jish fertilizers. 



300. An enormous loss results to our agriculture from the waste of fish 

 that might be saved, from faulty manufacture of fish into fertilizers, 

 from wrong use of the fertilizers when made, and from the exportation 

 of the best products to Europe, where their value is better understood. 

 This loss will be prevented in proportion as the nature and uses of fish 

 manures are learned. 



51. The use of fish fertilizers in agriculture. 



Chemistry of i^Umt nutrition. 



301. Not only farmers and merchants, but many manufacturers as 

 well, have a very poor understanding of what constitutes the value of 

 fish as fertilizers, and how they may be most economically utilized. It 

 will be well, therefore, to consider briefly some of the principles that 

 decide the value and usefulness of fertilizers in general, and of fish 

 products in particular. 



Fish manures, like other commercial fertilizers, are valuable because 

 they supply plant-food which crops need and soils fail to furnish. Their 

 main value depends upon their content of nitrogen and phosphoric 

 acid. These are tbe most valuable and costly ingredients of commercial 

 fertilizers. 



Plants, like animals, require food for life and growth. A part of the 

 food of plants is supplied from the atmosphere, the remainder is de- 

 rived from the soil. No ordinary cultivated plant can thrive without a 

 sufiQcient supply of each of a number of substances needed for its food. 

 With an abundance of all of these in forms in which the plant can use 

 them, and with other circumstances favorable, the plant will flourish 

 and the j iold be large. But if the available supply of any one of them 



