NITROGEN IN AGRICULTURE. 173 



surplus is sold to the neighboring farmers at tiie best price that can 

 be got. 



Besides the mauhaden there are numerous other fish-wastes, 

 all rich in nitrogen and phosphate. On two occasions I have 

 purchased cargoes of spoiled herring ; in one instance nine 

 hundred barrels, at the rate of fift}' or sixty cents a barrel, which, 

 as a barrel weighs about two hundred pounds, would be about 

 five dollars |)er ton. In some instances the fish are preserved in 

 salt, which adds one-quarter or more to the weight ; in others they 

 are fresh, with the oil in them, which does not add to their value 

 as manure, for oil is nearly pure carbon, which is of no value for 

 the purpose ; on tlie contrar}-, it somewhat hinders their decompo- 

 sition. 



Occasional!}', during the fall fishing, on the fishing-banks near 

 the coast, a supply of pollock will accumulate, more than the 

 market will take ; when they can be purchased at a price that will 

 mate cheap manure. A few 3ears ago, to help sustain the market, 

 1 left a standing order with our fishermen that I would pa}' twenty- 

 five cents a hundred pounds for pollock ; the result was twenty 

 thousand pounds of fine large fish, weighing from eight to fifteen 

 pounds each, just out of the water, hauled to my manure heap. 



Not long ago vast quantities of waste were made in the heads, 

 sound-bones, and entrails, which accumulate at fishing ports. 

 These were for j'ears dropped into the ocean as refuse. ISo im- 

 mense was the waste, that at the Isles of Shoals, off the New 

 Hampshii'e coast, the harbor actually became so nearly closed to 

 navigation that the inhabitants, on two occasions, had to dredge 

 it out. I am told that beneath some of the long wharves of 

 Gloucester, Mass., the great fishing town of the United States, 

 there has accumulated an almost immeasurable quantity of this 

 bone refuse. When, a few years ago, the heads, sound-bones, 

 and entrails became a market article, I used to bu}' it at $o or 

 $6 a cord on board the cars ; a cord weighs from three and a 

 half to four tons. It was an exceedingl}' cheap manure, but a very 

 disagreeable one to handle, the smell being anything but ottar 

 of roses ; while it took a vast quantity of soil to compost it. After 

 remaining some months, oftentimes the heads would not be fully 

 decayed, making the mass extremely disagreeable to handle, while 

 there could only he a rough guess made as to how much of it would 

 become plant food the same season it was applied. Of late years 

 the fish are for the most part cleaned before the vessels reach port, 



