FISH. 



FISH. 



are usually obtainable at the rate of from 6d. 

 to 8d. 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 these fish. 

 Upon this fishery the committee of the House 

 of Commons of the session of 1833 reported: 

 "This fishery, which prevails principally 

 upon the Kentish, Norfolk, and Essex coasts, 

 have been proved to your committee to occasion 

 very extensive injury to the span and brood 

 of fish. The nets used in it are of a very fine 

 description, so small as not to let a pen pass 

 through, and they enclose not only sprats, but 

 the span and young brood of all other kinds 

 offish; and as these nets are frequently drawn 

 along the ground, and in shallow waters, during 

 the breeding season, arid in the winter months 

 before the young fish are gone into deep wa- 

 ters, an immense destruction of the spawn and 

 breed of fish is the inevitable consequence; 

 whilst, from the almost unlimited demand for 

 this species of manure for land, and there be- 

 ing a ready sale for all that can be procured, 

 this branch of fishing has greatly increased; 

 and there, are at present from 400 to 500 boats 

 engaged in Slow-boating on the Kentish coast 

 only, which remain upon the fishing grounds 

 frequently for a week together, not for the 

 purpose of catching sprats or any other fish to 

 be sold as food in the market, but until they 

 have obtained full cargoes of dead fish for the 

 purpose of manuring the land." 



The Farmers of Essex and Suffolk purchase 

 these fish by thousands of bushels at a time, 

 and carry them in wagons 10 or 15 miles into 

 the inland districts. 



PilcharJs are extensively employed in Corn- 

 wall and Devonshire, both in the fresh and in 

 the salted state. The pilchard is a small fish 

 not larger than a herring; it visits part of the 

 coast- of Cornwall and Devon in large shoals, 

 during the months of August 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 substance, to 

 prevent them from causing too rank a growth. 

 The effects of these pilchards, according to 

 Sir H. Davy, are apparent for several years. 

 The pilchard is a very oily fish, and may be 

 had in almost inexhaustible quantities. Be- 

 tween 8000 and 9000 persons, at sea and on 

 shore, are employed in this fishery, and about 

 30,000 hogsheads are annually exported either 

 to the West Indies or the Mediterranean. 



The herring. The employment of this value- 

 able fish for the purpose of manuring the 

 ground is limited to those districts near the 

 sea to which the shoals of herrings are regu- 

 larly visiters; and even there, their use is 

 confined to those seasons in which there is an 

 annual glut, as occasionally happens on the 

 coasts of Scotland and the eastern side of 

 England. They are a very oily fish, and pro- 

 duce the same rank luxuriance of growth as 

 sprats or pilchards. Arthur Young has given 

 us an account of an experiment, in which some i 

 wheat, manured with these fish, grew so luxu- ! 

 riantly, that it was entirely laid before the 

 period of harvest Very numerous or accurate 



1 comparative experiments with this fish can 



hardly be expected, for its use must necessarily 



be confined to peculiar districts; and when 



obtained, it is generally ploughed in with con- 



siderable expedition, or dug into earth heaps, 



which is a mode found to answer extremely 



I well. And it has been found, in the case oif 



1 spoiled red herrings, that their application is 



extremely advantageous to the hop plantations^ 



! (Essay on Salt, p. 101.) 



Sticklebacks. The use of the stickleback is 

 principally confined to the neighbourhood of 

 the Fens of Lincolnshire and Cambridge, in. 

 which it breeds with great rapidity, and in 

 shallow waters they are caught at certain sea- 

 sons entirely as an article for manure. They 

 are used in much the same proportions, either 

 by themselves or mixed with earth, &c., as 

 sprats, and are not more durable in their good 

 effects. 



The Fat or Blubber of the Whale. Whale 

 blubber was employed by the late Lord So- 

 merville, at his farm at Fairmile, in Surrey, as 

 a manure, and produced the richest crops. It 

 was mixed with the sandy earth, and suffered 

 to dissolve in the heap. It cost at the wharf in 

 London 20 shillings, and, with the expenses of 

 carriage, about 2/. per ton. It answered equally 

 well upon arable and pasture lands, producing 

 most luxuriant crops ; and its good effects were 

 visible for two or three years. Its general high 

 price, however, rarely admits of its employ- 

 ment by the farmer 



Whale blubber is composed principally of 

 train oil and other animal matters ; but the oil 

 is by far the largest portion of the blubber ; 

 and to the presence of this fish oil, which does 

 not appear to differ materially in composition 

 from whatever fish it is obtained, must be at- 

 tributed the chief fertilizing value of all fish. 

 Train oil has been analyzed by Dr. Thomson. 

 He found in 100 parts (Chemistry, vol. iv. p. 

 433), 



Carbon 



Hydrogen 



Oxygen 



- 68-87 



- 1610 



- 1503 



100- 



tai 



Spermaceti oil, according to Dr. Ure, con- 

 00 parts, 



Part* 

 Carbon - - - - - - - 78' 



Hydrogen - - - - - - -11-8 



Oxygen --.____ 10-2 



100. 



Fish oils, therefore, are composed of exactly 

 the same materials that constitute almost all 

 vegetable substances, differing only in the pro- 

 portions ; for sugar, starch, gluten, gum, &c. 

 &c., are all composed of these three substances 

 carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen ; blubber, 

 therefore, may be regarded as the most con- 

 densed manure that it is possible to apply to a 

 soil: it contains little, if any, water, and every 

 portion of it is food for plants. The same re- 

 mark will apply to the dregs of train oil, &c., 

 which are sometimes applied, mixed with 

 earth, to the same purpose ; but it is seldom 

 that these substances can be procured, in any 

 quantity, at a sufficiently reasonable rate. 



479 



