﻿36 BULLETIN 2, TJ. S. DEPAKTMENT OF AGEICULTUKE. 



USES. 



FERTILIZER. 



Fish scrap, from the inception of the industry, has met with great 

 success as a fertilizer, until to-day it constitutes one of the main 

 sources of organic nitrogen used in the fertilizer industry. Its nitro- 

 gen is in a form from which it is readily rendered available by the 

 bacterial and other action taking place in the soil. The organic mat- 

 ter, which serves as the carrier for the nitrogen, in fish scrap as in 

 other organic nitrogenous substances is a beneficial adjunct not 

 enjoyed by the inorganic nitrogenous substances. 



A small amount of fish scrap is used directly as fertilizer without 

 admixture with other fertilizer ingredients or fillers. Its success 

 when used alone has not been unqualified. Its continued applica- 

 tion has led to a condition of the soil in which it would no longer 

 respond to that fertilizer. A larger portion is mixed (" manipu- 

 lated ") by the manufacturers of the scrap to form a so-called com- 

 plete fertilizer and is sold, generally locally, under brand names. 

 During the past year (1912) about 10,000 tons were thus employed. 

 This practice is growing. 



By far the larger proportion of the output of the East is sold di- 

 rectly or through the medium of brokers to the larger manufacturers 

 of fertilizers, by whom it is worked up into the various grades of 

 finished goods marketed by them. 



CHICKEN FEED. 



This use of fish scrap at present is so slight in the East as scarcely 

 to deserve mention. Only a few tons, and these by a small number 

 of chicken growers, are thus utilized; but the success of those so 

 using it, evidenced by their yearly increasing orders, would seem to 

 justify its exploitation by experiment stations and its trial by other 

 poultry raisers. 



The following paragraph is quoted, with excisions, from Goode: 1 



At a meeting of the Maine Board of Agriculture and Farmers' Convention, 

 Mr. Wasson gave an interesting account of the use of " pogy chum " as a 

 food for sheep and poultry, stating that he had used it for five years. * * * 

 Sheep thus fed showed an average increase each of one pound and a quarter 

 of wool, while they were constantly fat and brought heavy lambs. Hens also 

 ate the scrap with avidity. Boyd stated that hens, ducks, and turkeys preferred 

 it to corn, and became large and heavy when fed upon it. It is customary 

 to discontinue the scrap and feed them on corn three or four weeks previous 

 to killing them. 



CATTLE FEED. 



The use of fish scrap as a feed for cattle has met with such success, 

 seemingly, in those instances where it has been tested that it is sur- 

 prising that its adoption for this purpose has not become more 



!Loc. cit. Cf. pp. 140-141. 



