210 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



and Long Island Sound will be used to produce both oil and fish-cake, 

 and the latter, being duly prepared so as to render it inodorous, will be 

 sent into the agricultural market as an artificial guano. I have no 

 doubt of the high fertilizing efl'ects which this guano is capable of pro- 

 ducing, nor of the economy of the manufacture j)roposed."* 



Manufacture in Canada. 



280. Mr. Hunt, in the Eeport of the Geological Survey of Canada, 

 under date of March, 1858, says : 



"Mr. Duncan Bruce has lately been endeavoring to introduce the man- 

 ufacture of fish-manure into Canada ; but he conceived the idea of com- 

 bining the fish ofifal with a large amount of calcined shale, under the 

 impression that the manure thus prepared will have the eifect of driv- 

 ing away insects from the plants to which it is applied." * * * An- 

 alyses of this manure, by Mr. Hunt, showed it to contain about 3 per 

 cent, of ammonia and something more than 3 per cent, of phosphoric 

 acid ; and so of less than half the manurial value of a well-made arti- 

 cle from pure fish alone. 



Manufacture of '■'■ cancerine''^ in New Jersey. 



281. Professor Cook, State geologist of New Jersey, in his report for 

 1856, states that — 



"An establishment for making a concentrated manure from king- 

 crabs or horse-feet had been erected at Goshen, in Cape May County, 

 by Messrs. Ingham & Beesley. Several hundred tons of this substance 

 were made last year and sold under the name of cancerine. It is a pow- 

 erful fertilizer, and in its composition, as well as in its eifects, has con- 

 siderable resemblance to guano." The average per cent, of ammonia and 

 l>hosphoric acid in "cancerine," as shown by three analyses by Professor 

 Cook, was 9.92 per cent, of ammonia and 4.05 per cent, of phosphoric 

 acid, and he estimates its value at $31 per ton ; and further says, " the 

 results of trials with it have fully sustained its value as determined by 

 analyses." 



Early manufacture in Maine. 



282. Mr. Goodale says further, in the report referred to : 



"Until within a few months, I was not aware that any attempt had 

 been made iu our State to manufacture a portable manure from fish; 

 but I have recently learned of several. In Boston I found an article 

 for sale under the name of ' fish-guano,' which by inquiry was ascer- 

 tained to have been made by a Mr. Fowler, at Lubec. I learned subse- 

 quently that he had manufactured a quantity two or three years previ- 

 ously, but that either from not finding a ready sale, or from other 

 causes, had discontinued its manufacture. It is understood to have 



* Report of the Commissioner of Patents for the year 1854 — Agriculture. — Washing- 

 ton * * * 1855, p. 107. 



