88 FERTILIZERS. 



which but about half can be saved, making a little over 

 a quarter of the 38 cents in the manure saved from a 

 fowl annually. Where we are so situated that we can go 

 outside the general market for our fertilizing elements, -ye 

 can sometimes pick them up at a very cheap rate. The 

 present season (1885) I have purchased at the town of 

 Gloucester, Mass., fish-waste in the form of liver, halibut, 

 and herring chum at a remarkably low figure, the liver 

 chum at $4 per ton, which would make the nitrogen in it 

 come to about 4i cents per pound, and the phosphoric acid 

 at about li cents. Halibut chum is now worth $8 per ton, 

 which would bring the nitrogen in that form about 8 cents 

 per pound, and the phosphoric acid 2 cents per pound. 

 Fish-skins, by which I mean the skins, bones, and fins 

 stripped from fish, which are sold under the name of " bone- 

 less fish," are sold this season in Gloucester at the low figure 

 of $ 4 per ton. I have not an analysis at hand ; but they are 

 very rich in both ammonia and phosphoric acid, having 

 about 4.50 of the former, and 6 of the latter. They are 

 very salt, being stripped from salted fish. In this form the 

 ammonia cannot cost over 6 cents, or the phosphoric acid 

 over 2 cents, per pound. " Chum," or pomace, from waste 

 mackerel or herring, is sold the present season as low as 

 $6.50 per ton. There is usually a large per cent of salt 

 in its composition. The ammonia at these rates cannot 

 be over 6 cents, and the phosphoric acid over 2| cents, per 

 pound. 



I would have my farmer friends understand that the 

 above rates are lower than usual, about, on an average, 

 from a third to a half the usual price ; still, at the usual 

 prices of material, fish-waste is the cheapest source for 

 nitrogen. 



Says Professor Goessmann, " Manufacturers put it in a 

 better mechanical condition, and sell it at about $34 per 



