1838] 



FAllMERS' REGISTER 



153 



Sprats.— In tlie c.ouiilies of Essex, Kent, and 

 Sutrolk, iho iisrt of this m:\uureis very jreiieral. 

 althoiii^Hi the praclice is not ol' very long standing;. 

 The qnanlity applied per acre varies lioni 25 to 

 45 bushels, the poor ^iiravelly soils requiring more 

 than tiie ioainy lands. 



They are aeiually spread hy hand, and on win- 

 ter fallows intended for oats, ol which, especially 

 if the summer is not too dry, it produces nios; lux- 

 uriant crops, of a peculiar dari< green color, yield- 

 ing ten or eleven quarters per acre, and that on 

 land of a very second-rate description. The ef- 

 fect ol' Ilie application, however, remains only tor 

 one crop. They produce an equally good result 

 if mixed with earth and suffered to remain and 

 dissolve, for some time, in the heap, before they 

 are carted on the land. In this way they answer 

 exceedingly well lor turnips. They are usually 

 obtainable at the rale of from sixpence to eight- 

 pence per bushel. 



The extent to which this manure is used may 

 be judged by that of the Stow-boat fishery, which 

 is solely devoted to catching fish. Upon this fish- 

 ery the committee of the House of Commons of 

 the session of 183 ! thus reported — 



"This fishery, which prevails principally upon 

 the Kentish, Norfolk, and Essex coasts, has been 

 proved to your committee, to occasion very ex- 

 tensive injury to the spawn and brood offish. 

 The nets used in it ate of a very fine description, 

 so small as not to let a pen pass through, and they 

 enclose not only sprats, hut the spawn and young 

 brood of all o'her kinds of fish, and as these nets 

 are frequently drawn along the ijround, and in 

 shallow waters during the breedinii; season, and 

 in the winter months before the young fish are 

 gone into deeper waters, an immense destruction 

 of the spawn and breed of fish is the inevitable 

 consequence; whilst from the almost unlimited de- 

 mand for this species of manure for land, and there 

 being a ready sale for all that can be procured, 

 this branch ol fishintr has greatly increased; and 

 there are at present from four to five hundred 

 boats engaged in Stow-boating on the Kentish 

 coast only, which remain upon the fishing ^rounds 

 frequently for a week together, not for the pur- 

 pose of catching sprats or any other fish to be 

 sold as food in the market, but until they have ob- 

 tained Itill cargoes of dead fish for the purpose of 

 manuring the land." 



The farmers of Essex and Sufl^blk purchase 

 these fish by thousands of bushels at a time, 

 and carry them in wagons ten or fifteen miles into 

 the inland districts. 



Pilchards are extensivelv employed in Corn- 

 wall and Devonshire, both in the fresh and in the^ 

 salted state. The pilchard is a small fish not 

 larger ihan a herrinj.^; it visits part of the coast of 

 Cornwall and Devon in larije shoals, during the 

 months of Au<just and September, and again in 

 November or December. 



The refuse fish, which are those principally 

 used by the cultivator, are usually mixed with 

 earth, sea-sand, sea-weed, or some other sub- 

 stance, to prevent them from causing too rank a 

 growth. The efliects of these pilchards, accord- 

 ing to Sir H. Davy, are apparent for several 

 years. 



The pilchard is a very oily fish, and may be 

 had in almost inexhaustible quantities. Between 

 eight and nine thousand persons, at sea and on 

 Vol. VI— 20 



shore, are employed in this fishery, and about 

 30.000 hogsheads are annually exported either to 

 the West Indies or the Mcdiierrauean. 



7'he Herring. — The em()loyment ol" this va- 

 luable fish (or the purpose of manuring the ground 

 is limited to those districts near the sea, to wliich 

 the shoals of herrings are regularly visitors, and 

 even there, their use is confined to those seasons 

 in which there is an unusual glut, as occasionally 

 happens on the coasts of Scotland and the eastern 

 bide of England. They are a very oily fish, and 

 produce the same rank luxuriance of growth as 

 sprats or pilchards. 



Tlie celebrated Arthur Young has given us an 

 account of an experiment, in which some wheat, 

 manured with these fish, grew so luxuriantly that 

 it was entirely laid betbre the period of harvest. 



Very numerous or accurate comparative expe- 

 rmienls with this fish can hardly be expected, 

 lijr its use must necessarily be confined to pe- 

 culiar districts; and when obtained, it is generally 

 ploughed in with considerable ex[)edition, or dug 

 into "earth heaps, which is a muile found to an- 

 swer extremely well. 



Sticklchacks. — The use of the stickleback is 

 principally confined to the neighborhood of the 

 Fens of Lincolnshire and Cambridge, in whicliit 

 breeds with great rapidity, and in whose shallow 

 waters they are caught at certain seasons, speci- 

 ally as an article for manure. They are used in 

 much the same proportion?, either by themselves 

 or mixed with earth, &c., as sprats, and are not 

 more durable in their good efiects. 



The. fat or blubber of the whale. — Whale blub- 

 ber was employed by the late Lord Somerville, at 

 his farm at Fairmile, in Surry, as a manure, and 

 produced the richest crops. Its general high 

 price, however, rarely admits of its employment 

 by the flirmer. It was mixed uith the sandy 

 earth, and suHered to dissolve in the heap. It 

 cost, at the wharf in London, 20s., and, with the 

 expenses of carriage, cost his lordship about £2 

 per ton. It answered equally well upon arable 

 and pasture lands, producing most luxuriant crops; 

 and its good efiects were visible for two or three 

 years. 



Whale blubber is composed principally of train 

 oil and other animal mat.ters; but the oil is by far 

 the largest portion of the blubber; and to the pre- 

 sence of this fish oil, which does not appear to dif- 

 fer materially in composition, from whatever fish 

 it is obtained, must be attributed the chief fertiliz- 

 in£r value of all fish. 



Train oil has been analyzed by Dr. Thomson. 

 He Ibimd in 100 parts — 

 Carbon 



Hydrogen 

 Oxygen 



Spermaceti oil, 

 in 100 [larts — 

 Carbon 

 Hydrogen 

 Oxygen 



68.87 

 16.10 

 15.03 



100.00 



according to Dr. Ure, contains 



78.00 

 11.80 

 10.20 

 . 100.00 



Fish oils, therefore, are composed of exactly 

 the same substances thai constitute almost all ve- 

 getable substances, difiering only in the propor- 

 tions for sugar, starch, gluten, gum, &c., &c., 

 which are all composed of these three substances 

 —carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen; blubber, there- 



