Atigtisi 12, iS8o] 



NATURE 



335 



THE MENHADEN 

 The Menhaden J being a History of the Fish. By G. 

 Brown Goode. With an Account of the Agricultural 

 C/ses of Fish. By W. O. Atwater. (New York : Orange 

 Judd Company, 1880.) 



IN money value the American menhaden ranks fourth 

 in the Hst of the fishes of the United States. First 

 comes the cod, secondly the salmon, thirdly the mackerel, 

 and then the menhaden. In absolute pounds' weight 

 caught it would seem to come first of all, upwards of 460 

 millions of pounds' weight having been taken in 1876, 

 whereas there was considerably less than half this weight 

 of cod taken in that year, and all the salmon and mackerel 

 taken if weighed together would not amount to much 

 more than one-sixth of the weight. As its money value 

 must depend on its economic value, it may be as well at 

 once to briefly hint at its uses. As a table fish it is in 

 favour in many parts of the United States, when perfectly 

 fresh being considered superior in flavour to most of the 

 common shore fishes. In the Washington fish market, 

 when in season, they meet with a ready sale. Large 

 quantities are salted, and there is a great export of these 

 to the West Indies, where" they serve as food for the 

 negroes upon the plantations. Immense numbers are pre- 

 served in oil and spices and sold as sardines. Goodale's 

 extract of fish is made out of menhaden, and the qualities 

 of this preparation are testified to as being agreeable in 

 flavour and decidedly nutritive as food for cattle. Men- 

 haden scrap is a great success ; sheep get rapidly fat on 

 it. Hens, ducks, and turkeys prefer it to corn, and it 

 need not be added that pigs greedily devour it. For bait 

 it is extensively used in the cod and mackerel fisheries in 

 New England and the British Provinces. Its popularity 

 is no doubt chiefly due to the ease with which it may be 

 obtained in quantity. As an article of commerce men- 

 haden bait, it will be remembered, came under the con- 

 sideration of the Hahfax Commission of 1877 ; but per- 

 haps even a greater future is open to the menhaden 

 fisheries by the recently-established manufacture of oil 

 and guano from these fish. The State of Maine claims 

 to liave been the first to discover its value, and 

 now large factories turn out immense quantities of 

 these materials. In 1874 from 50,000 to 75,000 gallons of 

 oil was turned out from the Maine Works. The manu- 

 facture is simple in the extreme, consisting of three 

 processes : boiling the fish, pressing and clarifying the 

 expressed oil. The final operation is pumping it into 

 immense bleaching tanks, where it becomes whiter and 

 clearer in the rays of the sun. When well refined the oil 

 is light-coloured, sweet, and of prime quality. The uses 

 of this oil are manifold. It is chiefly employed, we are 

 told, as a substitute for the more costly and popular oils, 

 and to adulterate them. It is sold largely to tanneries 

 for currying leather. The principal market for it is in 

 Boston and New York, but considerable quantities are 

 shipped to London, Liverpool, and Havre. But menhaden 

 has still further uses. So far back in American history 

 as 1621 we read that the Plymouth colonists learnt from 

 an old Indian that they should use these fish as manure 

 on their ground ; and one Edward Johnson, writing in 

 1652, says, " But the Lord is pleased to provide for them 

 [the New England colonists] great store of fish in the 

 spring time. Many thousands of these they used to put 



under their Indian corn, which they plant in rills five foot 

 asunder." Now as a result of the profitable utilisation of 

 the menhaden for the manufacture of oil, the use of the 

 whole fish as a fertiliser has gradually and almost entirely 

 ceased, and the refuse from which the oil has been 

 expressed is used instead. This is known as " fish-scrap " 

 and "fish guano." In a wheat- growing country like 

 North America the importance of the subject of artificial 

 manures is great, and we quote from Prof. Cook's, of New 

 Jersey, report to the State Board of Agriculture as 

 follows : " Those who have tried a mixture of this fish 

 guano with barn-yard manure and a little Hme, say that 

 it is superior to any guano in the market. When applied 

 on corn the crop is considered as certain. The value of 

 fish as manure is due mainly to the presence in it of 

 nitrogen and phosphoric acid. The crops [most assisted 

 by fish manures are such as grass, grain, and corn, while 

 leguminous crops, like clover, beans, and peas, are more 

 benefited by mineral manures." 



The above is but a brief ri'stime of one portion of 

 Messrs. Goode and Atwater' s interesting work, the title 

 of which is quoted above. Their history was prepared 

 for the Fifth Annual Report of the Commissioner of 

 Fisheries for 1877. As reprinted, it forms an octavo 

 volume of 540 pages and 30 plates. 



The menhaden {Clupea menhadeti of Mitchell) is, when 

 adult, a most beautiful fish ; its colour is pearly opales- 

 cent ; each scale has all the beauty of a fine pearl, and 

 the reflections from the mailed side of a fish just taken 

 from the water are superb ; the scales of the back and 

 top of the head are of a purplish hue. Its importance to 

 the States may be compared to the importance of the 

 herring to Northern Europe. It is to be found at the 

 same period during the year in the coast waters of all the 

 Atlantic States from Maine to Florida. A surface tem- 

 perature of about 51° is necessary for its appearance in 

 waters near the shores. Its food is apparently for 

 the most part minute algE. The geographical range of 

 the species, the arrival and departure of the " schools," 

 the migration question, the peculiar movements of the 

 " schools " of menhaden, are all subjects discussed at 

 great length in this report, and from it many facts of 

 great value to those interested in our own shore-fisheries 

 are to be learnt. 



The strange and unaccountable absence of the men- 

 haden last year from the waters of Cape Cod are briefly 

 alluded to in the Introduction. This absence was disas- 

 trous to many, and proved by a sad experience that the 

 harvest of the sea will sometimes fail. The oil and 

 guano factories lost a year's work ; the factory hands and 

 steamer's crew were entirely thrown out of employment ; 

 those were all on hand to begin work on June i, and kept 

 working, in the hope that the fish would " strike," until 

 late in August. When they at last gave up all hope it 

 was too late to engage in any other occupation to make 

 money to carry them over the winter. This absence of 

 the fish north of the Cape did not appear to be compen- 

 sated for by any remarkable abundance in southern New 

 England, but a much larger number of fish were captured 

 in these waters in 1879, as so many more vessels went 

 there to fish. We hope soon to hear of a good season's 

 fishing at Cape Cod, and we strongly recommend this 

 important report on the menhaden to the reader's notice. 



