﻿38 BULLETIN 2, V. S. DEPARTMENT OE AGRICttLTtrttfi. 



It is apparent that the scrap spoken of here as used in these feed- 

 ing experiments is the undried scrap as taken from the presses. No 

 reason suggests itself why the dried scrap should not be as nutritious 

 as the wet as, theoretically, the drying causes no chemical change in 

 the organic substances of the scrap but merely removes water. The 

 advantages of the dry over the wet scrap as a feed are numerous and 

 great. 



Feeding experiments were conducted by Farrington at the experi- 

 mental ,farm of the Maine College of Agriculture. Two flocks of 

 lambs, of five each, were chosen, and during a period of 16 weeks 

 one flock was fed corn and hay and the other fish scrap and hay. 

 During the first four weeks of the experiment " the corn-fed flock, 

 weighing 340^ pounds, ate 335 pounds of hay and lost 19 pounds in 

 weight. The flock eating fish, weighing 338 pounds, ate 338 pounds 

 hay and lost 1^ pounds." During the 16 weeks of the experiment 

 the sheep were fed about 2 ounces of fish scrap per head per day and 

 the same amount of corn; in that time the corn-fed flock gained 48 

 pounds, or 15^ per cent, and the fish-fed flock 47-J pounds, or 15-^§- 

 per cent. As the fish scrap was unground and contained bones, it 

 was not entirely eaten. 



On the whole, then, these experiments [and others 1 described in the report 

 by Atwater, but omitted here 2 ] bear unanimous and convincing testimony in 

 favor of the easy digestibility and high nutritive value of animal foods in gen- 

 eral and of fish guano in particular when fed to sheep and swine. How far 

 they could be made profitable for other herbivorous animals than sheep has not 

 yet been tested. In the nature of the case there is no reason why they should 

 not be as nutritious for neat cattle as for sheep. As Voit has justly observed, 

 all mammals are at one period of their lives, when living upon milk, car- 

 nivorous. * * * 



In short, we have every reason, from practical experience, from actual 

 experiment, and from what we know of the nature of the case, to believe 

 that the immense amount of animal waste produced in this country from our 

 slaughterhouses, and especially from our fisheries, can be utilized with the 

 greatest ease and profit to supply the most pressing need of a most important 

 part of our agriculture — nitrogenous food for stock. 



The ingredients of fish may be made more available for plant food and their 

 value for manure increased by * * * feeding to stock, thus putting it 

 through a process similar to that by which Peruvian guano has been formed. In 

 this way it can be used to enrich the manure made on the farm, and thus made 

 one of the best aids to successful farming. 



Concerning the utilization of fish scrap as cattle feed, Henry, in 

 " Feeds and Feeding," says: 



Along the coasts of Europe the waste parts of fish as well as entire fishes 

 not used for human food are fed in dried form to animals. Spier, of Scotland, 



1 By Wolff, Wil'dt, Kellner, and Weiske, described in Die Landwirthschaftlichen Ver- 

 suchs-Station, J. f. Landwirthschaft and Landwirtlischaftliche Jahrbiicher, 1876 and 

 1877. 



2 Note inserted by writer, J. W. T. 



