250 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



The nitrogen in fish makes it particularly good for grass and grain, 

 but excess is apt to make grain "run to stalk " and lodge, and may in- 

 jure or even kill any crop for which it is used. 



Besides grain and grass crops, fish does well for corn, i^otatoes, garden 

 vegetables, etc. It promotes the growth of tobacco, but is thought by 

 many farmers to injure the quality of the leaf. 



The fine, dry fish-guano with little oil is the best. The coarse, wet 

 scrap is Inconvenient to handle, and cannot be well diffused through the 

 soil. Concentrated fertilizers ought to be thoroughly mixed with the 

 soil so as to be accessible to the largest number of roots and injure none. 

 Neglect to observe this causes immense waste of fertiliziug materials 

 and loss of crops. If the coarse scrap is to be used it is best to com- 

 post it. The lumps are thus divided, the material decomposed and 

 changed to more available forms, its value for plant- food increased, and 

 it can be applied so as to secure the greatest benefit with the least 

 waste. 



Fermentation with urine, as described above, improves fish greatly. 



The best method of all for getting fish into forms most fit for plant- 

 food is to feed it to stock. This brings a two-fold advantage : it sup- 

 plies the nitrogen (protein albuminoids) that poor foods, such as straw, 

 cornstalks, and poor hay lack, and makes excellent fodder from cheap 

 materials, while the nitrogen and phosphoric acid that are not used at 

 the greatest possible profit to make flesh and bone are left in the ma- 

 nure in much better form for plant-food than they were in the fish. 



There is great need of improvement in the manufacture of fish ma- 

 nures. What is wanted is a fine, dry product with as little ballast of 

 water and oil and as much nitrogen as possible. 



The chief obstacle to the better economizing of fish in agriculture is 

 lack of information as to the best ways of making and using the prod- 

 ucts. To get this, careful scientific research and close practical obser- 

 vation are indispensable. Investigations in the laboratory and exper- 

 iments in the field combined will bring the needed knowledge, and it 

 will be worth a hundred times the cost. 



52. Fish as food for domestic animals. 



Principles of animal nutrition. — European experiments. 



314. Undoubtedly the manure problem is the most important that the 

 agriculture of our older States has to solve. The next weightiest is the 

 food question, how to best economize and improve our fodder materials. 

 Inside this the most important si)ecial problem is how to obtain foods 

 rich in nitrogen. Our feeding materials, taking them together, lack 

 nitrogen. In consequence, our animals are insufficiently fed and fail to 

 get the full benefit of the food they do have. The result is under- 

 production of meat, dairy products, and work, and in turn poor manure 

 and poor crops. European farmers have passed through this costly 



