HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN MENHADEN. 487 



stances aids in ocouoiiiizlng its nitrogen, and tliereby lessens the ex])enses 

 for the production of many of our farm crops. Potash compounds added 

 to fish-guano tend to produce a more complete fertilizer, and therefore 

 renders its use safer wherever larger proportions of potash compounds 

 are essential for the crops under cultivation. Fish-guano, like Peru- 

 vian guano, is very deficient in i)otassa. To render the fish before work- 

 ing them into fertilizers is not only good economy as far as the gain of 

 the oil is concerned, it favors also a more rapid disintegration of the 

 organic matter by allowing the moisture freely to permeate the entire 

 mass. The more the fat has been removed previous to their incopora- 

 tiou into the soil, the more speedy will be their disintegration and sub- 

 sequent diffusion in the soil. Oil appears also to be iudiiierent to 

 plant-growth. 



Wishing that these short discussions of your special inquiries may be 

 not without interest to you, I remain 

 Kespectfully, yours, 



C. A. GOESSMANN. 



Prof. G. B. GooDE, 



Middletown, Conn. 



3. A Descri;piion of the factory of the Pacific Guano Company, at Woo(Vs 



Roll, Mass. 



Menhaden scrap is used to a considerable extent for the purpose of 

 securing the desired proportion of nitrogen (nmmonia) in the manu- 

 facture of those commercial fertilizers known as superphosphates. By 

 many manufacturers it is used only incidentally, their chief reliance 

 being bird-guano or the dried refuse of the slaughter-houses. The Pacific 

 Guano Com pany of Boston, however, make it their base for ammonia, and 

 use it as a principal ingredient of their manufactured guano. This com- 

 pany was established in 18G1 by a number of ship-owners in search of 

 business for their unemployed vessels. Having purchased Howland's 

 Island in the Southern Pacific, where there was a rich deposit of bird- 

 guano, they established their business on Spectacle Island, in Boston 

 Harbor, and here they carried their guano, and, having dried it in the 

 vats of the deserted salt-works, put it up in bags for the market. After 

 a time it was suggested that the guano might be improved by the admix- 

 ture of refuse fish, and that the ammonia lost by exposure to the 

 weather might thus be replaced. In this way the use of menhaden 

 chum, already well known as a manure, was introduced into the manu- 

 facture. 



In 1863 the works were removed to Wood's Holl, Barnstable County, 

 Massachusetts, -with the intention of capturing the fish needed, and 

 after extracting the oil, applying the pumice to the manufacture of 

 guano. 



