history of the american menhaden. 195 



47. Menhaden and other fish in a fresh state used as a fer- 

 tilizer. 



Use among the Tndiayis and early colonists. 



2G8. Professor Trumbull tells us that the ludian names of Brevoortm, 

 " meubadeu " and " po^haden " (pogy), mean " fertilizer," that which 

 manures^ and that the Indians were accustomed to employ this species, 

 with others of the herring tribe (aumsuog and munnawhateaug), mostly 

 the alewife {Pomolobus iif^eudolmrengns), in enriching their corn-fields. 

 Thomas Morton wrote in 1632, of Virginia : " There is a fish (by some 

 called shadds, by some allizes) that at the spring of the yeare passe up 

 the rivers to spawn in the ponds, & are taken in such multitudes in 

 every river that hath a pond at the end that the inhabitants doung their 

 grounds with them. You may see in one township a hundred acres to- 

 gether, set with these fish, every acre taking 1,000 of them, & an acre 

 thus dressed will produce and yeald so much corne as 3 acres without 

 fish ; & (least any Virgiuea man would inferre hereupon that the ground 

 of New England is barren, because they use no fish in setting their 

 corne, I desire them to be remembered, the cause is plaiue in Virginea) 

 they have it not to sett. But this practice is onely for the Indian maize 

 (which must be set by hands), not for English gi^ain : & this is, therefore, 

 a commodity there."* 



This passage is very interesting, showing the use of fish fertilizers in 

 Virginia two hundred and fifty years ago or more, and, from what is 

 known of the habits of the herring family in Virginia rivers and the 

 persistency of local names, there can be little doubt that many menha- 

 den were used among the fertilizing fish, though "shadds and allizes" 

 doubtless includes the shad [Alosa sapidissima), the mattowocca [Pomo- 

 lobus mediocris) , the alewife {Fomolohis pseudoharengits), and the thread- 

 herring [Dorosoma cepedianum)^ all of which are common in spring In 

 the Potomac and other rivers which empty into Chesapeake Bay. 



In Governor Bradford's " History of Plimoth Plantation" an account 

 is given of the early agricultural experiences of the Plymouth colonists. 

 In April, 1G21, at the close of the first long dreary winter, " they (as 

 many as were able) began to plant their corne, in which service Squanto 

 (an Indian) stood them in great stead, showing them both y® manner 

 how to set it and after how to di-ess &, tend it. Also he toukl them, as- 

 cepte they got fish & set with it (in these old grounds) it would come to 

 nothing ; and he showed them y* in y® midle of Aprill, tbey should have 

 store enough come up y^ brooke by which they begane to build, and 

 taught them how to take it." t 



*New England Canaan ; or New Canaan, containing an abstract of New England. 

 Composed in three Bookes. * * » Written by Thomas, of Clifford's Inn, 

 Gent. Upon ten Yeers knowledge & Experiment of the Country. Printed by Charles 

 Green, 1(532. Force's Historical Tracts, Vol. II, .? 



t Coll. Mass. Hist. Soc, HI, 4th series, 1856, p. 100. 



