15^ 



contains nitrogen and phosphoric acid. In some sections it 

 has been injudiciously used, on some parts of the Cape, for 

 instance, tliey believe it has exhausted the soil, and doubt- 

 less this is so, as large quantities of oily fish ploughed in 

 year after year will fill the soil with fatty matter, which, 

 by rapid decomposition, parches, and tends to burn out, the 

 organic matter. But fish, properly treated, is a valuable 

 source of plant food, and, said the speaker, from an 

 economic point of view, every pound of fish waste should 

 be utilized, and every fish that can be caught out of the sea 

 taken, whether it be by hook and line, net, trawl, siene or 

 any other way, for it is a means of returning, in some 

 measure, the lost fertility that is continually pouring into 

 the sea. Mr. Bowker estimated that 5000 tons offish waste 

 are produced along this coast. 



But the great source of plant food from the sea is the 

 menhaden or porgie, which are evidently the scavengers of 

 the sea, as many specimens which have been dissected 

 show. A ton of menhaden fish, when the oil is pressed out 

 and dried, to li2 per cent, moisture, contains oOO pounds of 

 actual plant food, worth in the market from $30 to ^32 

 per ton at retail. The use of these fish as a fertilizer has 

 brought down the price of our best commercial fertilizers 

 from 'if)80 to $35 and $40 per ton. 



As far as can be ascertained menhaden are not to any 

 extent food for the food fish of the sea, so that the taking 

 of them in a wholesale way is not an injury to the food fish 

 industry in this direction. He quoted authorities, to show 

 that trawling, seining and netting fish by the most im- 

 proved methods did not materially lessen the supply, and 

 said that if fishermen were still obliged to resort to the old 

 methods, the demand would be so much greater than the 

 supply that few could aflbrd fi^li for food. On the other 

 hand he believed that increased facilities for catching fish 

 should be encouraged. 



Mr. Ware did not agree with Mr. Bowker that the m^i- 

 haden are scavengers. He said he lived within ten rods of 



