254 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



tlie latter part of the eighteenth century. It appears that fish weie 

 then employed for this purpose all alonj^ the Atlantic sealioard from 

 Maine to North Carolina wherever they were obtainable in sufticieut 

 quantities. 



Fresh fish contain usually from (55 to 80 per cent of water and fi-om 

 1 to 16 per cent of oil. Neither of these has any value as a fertilizer. 

 On the contrary they decrease the portability and storage qualities of 

 the constituents, and the presence of the oil is i)re,judicial to the 

 decomposition of the fertilizer when applied to the soil. 



Early in the nineteenth century the fis^-^rmen occasionally extracted 

 the oil from the fish when the l.«ui.er were unusiuilly fat, thus remov- 

 ing an injurious ingredient, for which valual)le uses were found. 

 This resulted gradually in the establishment of factories for removing 

 the oil, and likewise most of the water, so that the fertilizing sub- 

 stance might be in better condition for transportation. At i:)resent 

 most of the fish used for fertilizer are treated in this manner, even 

 the farmer-fishermen finding it more profitable to sell their catch at 

 the factories and purchase the scrap; but large quantities of fish in 

 a fresh state are yet used precisely as was the custom three hundred 

 years ago. 



Owing to its great abundance, combined with its nonedible quali- 

 ties, the menhaden is the principal fish used for fertilizer in this 

 country, and the quantity used annually is about 800,000,000 in num- 

 ber, or 240,000 tons round or live weight. Of these fully 99 per cent 

 are handled at the factories, and the remainder are used in a fresh or 

 green state. With the menhaden are taken some skates, sea-robins, 

 bellows-fish, and other waste fish. Aside from a few that may be 

 taken with the menhaden, and occasionally some river herring or 

 alewives, no other fish are captured in the United States especiallj^ 

 for fertilizer to any great extent. 



Formerly nearly all the waste produced in dressing fish for market 

 was thrown awaj' as useless; but in recent yeai's, in the fisheries as in 

 other industries, the utilization of waste material has been made a 

 subject of careful investigation, and many substances formerly con- 

 sidered refuse are now found to contain elements of commercial value. 

 The dressings at the fish markets and at the fishing centers, the refuse 

 of canneries and boneless-fish factories, and even the carcasses of 

 whales are turned to account in the production of fertilizer. In addi- 

 tion to these materials, the farmers use large quantit ies of seaweeds, 

 horseshoe crabs, oyster shells, clam shells, etc. 



The total annual product of menhaden fertilizer in the Ignited 

 States according to the latest returns amour led to 85,830 tons, for 

 which the producers received 81,539,810. It is difticult to approximate 

 the quantity of other fishery products used for fertilizer, but it is esti- 

 nmted tliat the wa.ste fish of all kinds amount to about i'0,000 tons, 

 worth §200,000; horseshoe crabs, shells of shrimp, etc., 800 tons, worth 



