68 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



to be unanswerable, and it will seem still stranger in view of the 

 fact that the fishermen of Lofoden, one of the Norwegian Islands, 

 should readily get forty-five dollars per ton for dry scrap made 

 by them from cod refuse. These apparently anomalous conditions 

 can, however, be partially accounted for from the facts that the 

 Peruvian guano is sold in a finely powdered state, and perfectly 

 dry, and the Lofoden islanders grind their scrap after drying it 

 upon the rocks by the sun's heat. In this condition the nitrogen 

 is more quickly assimilated, and the effects more speedily appre- 

 ciated by the growing crops. But this process could easily be 

 applied to the American product, and I have no doubt but that 

 ground or machine desiccated fish guano will form one of the 

 chief features of our manufacturers as soon as favorable or rather 

 just legislation will enable the manufacturers to calculate upon 

 more certain supplies. 



Mr. William Bowker, of the Massachusetts Board of Agricul- 

 ture, estimates that the 135,000 tons of plant food, referred to 

 earlier, contained more than sufficient phosphoric acid and 

 enough nitrogen for "3,200,000 acres of corn, of fifty bushels 

 each, or 7,000,000 acres of potatoes of one hundred bushels each." 



Let us now glance at the figures of the menhaden oil produc- 

 tion. From 1874 to 1892, inclusive, the quantity of oil expressed 

 from menhaden amounted to over 46,000,000 gallons about 165,- 

 000 tons. This was sold for prices varying according to the 

 abundance of the fish, from fifteen to twenty-one cents per gallon 

 in the seasons of 1885, 1886, and 1887, to thirty-five cents in 1879, 

 and forty in 1881 ; the price being thirty -two to thirty-three cents 

 during the past year (1893) ; so that the average price was about 

 thirty cents for these 46,000,000 gallons, or $13,800,000 for the 

 oil product of the menhaden fisheries for nineteen years equiva- 

 lent to $725,000 per annum. Add to this the average yearly value 

 of the acid and dry guano, as computed by Mr. Bowker, and 

 we find that the menhaden industry has enriched the country by 

 $2,360,000 annually since 1873. 



The oil has been used largely in tanning leather, and as the 

 basis for many oil paints and varnishes, while a great deal of it is 

 consumed for lighting purposes in our mines and elsewhere. The 

 quantity of oil annually exported is also very large, and the de- 

 mand for it is so great that markets could readily be obtained for 

 ten times the quantity. These are startling facts, and facts that 

 deserve most studious consideration. We have been reaping over 

 two million dollars' worth of products from menhaden and other 

 non-edible fish annually, despite repressive legislation in three of 

 the States in whose waters those fishes abound most plentifully ; 

 we pay millions of dollars annually for imported fertilizers; 

 we have agricultural and industrial demands for ten times the 



