﻿FISH-SCRAP FERTILIZER INDUSTRY OF ATLANTIC COAST. 5 



of fish in any one year, according to the figures of the United States Menhaden 

 Oil and Guano Association, was 858,592,691, taken in 1884; the smallest was 

 223,623,750, secured in 1S92, and the average catch during the last 30 years 

 approximates 500,000,000 annually. The incomplete returns for 1902 indicate 

 that the catch exceeded 900,000,000, a greater quantity than for any previous 

 year. 1 



The literature dealing with the fish-scrap industry is confined al- 

 most altogether to a small number of reports, prepared through State 

 or Federal initiative. Conspicuous among these are two valuable 

 reports by G. Brown Goode, on The Natural and Economic History 

 of the American Menhaden, 2 and by Charles H. Stevenson, on Aquatic 

 Products in Arts and Industries, 3 respectively. The present writer 

 has drawn freely from these articles for supplementary information 

 used in the present paper. 



PRESENT STATUS. 



At present there are about 40 factories on the Atlantic seaboard 

 which manufacture fish scrap. This number includes only those 

 whose main output is fish scrap and fish oil. Thus are excluded those 

 whose output in fish scrap is small and an entirely secondary matter, 

 such as the concerns which manufacture glue from cod and other fish 

 refuse. While residues from their cookers are sold for fertilizers and 

 are essentially fish scrap, their output in scrap is too small to accord 

 them more than mere mention in this discussion. 



Of this number of plants, the distribution by States is as follows : 

 Maine, 1; Connecticut, 2; New York, 3; New Jersey, 5; Delaware, 2; 

 Virginia, 21; North Carolina, 11; and Florida, 1; from which it is 

 seen that the Chesapeake Bay region in point of number of plants is 

 the center of the industry. 



In the following table are listed the factories of the principal 

 producers of fish scrap and their location : 



Table I. — List of factories of the principal producers of fish scrap on the 

 Atlantic coast and location. 



Name of concern. 



Location of plant. 



Maine: 



Deep Cove Manufacturing Co 



Connecticut: 



Niantic Menhaden Oil & Guano Co 



Wilcox Fertilizer Co 



New York: 



Atlantic Fertilizer & Oil Co 



Neptune Fishing Co 



Triton Oil Co 



New Jersey: 



Atlantic Fisheries Co 



Fifield Fish Oil and Fertilizer Co 



McKeever Bros 



Monmouth Oil & Guano Co. (successors to the Vernon S. 

 Vail Co.). 



New York & New Jersey Oil & Guano Co 



Deep Cove, Me. 



South Lyme, Conn. 

 Mystic, Conn. 



Promised Land, N. Y. 

 Do. 

 Do. 



Tuckerton, N. J. 

 Leesburg, N. J. 

 Tuckerton, N. J. 

 Port Monmouth, N. J. 



Do. 



i Stevenson, loc. cit. 2 U. S. Fish Coram. Rept., 1877, pp. 1-52) 



3 TJ. S. Fish Comm. Rept., 1902, pp. 177-352. 



