﻿FISH-SCRAP FERTILIZER INDUSTRY OF ATLANTIC COAST. 89 



reports no bad influence on milk when reasonable quantities of dried fish are 

 fed to dairy cows. Nilson found that SO parts of herring cake could replace 

 300 parts of linseed cake in the ration for cows. The better grades of dried 

 fish meal should be used for feeding farm animals. 



In a trial by Schrodt and Peters bran and rape cake were gradually replaced 

 by equal quantities of flesh meal until the allowance of the latter reached 2.2 

 pounds per head daily. It was found that the customary shrinkage in live 

 weight when in full milk flow did not occur, and there was an increase in the 

 total quantity of milk as well as in the total solids and fat. Flesh meal 

 effected a saving of 2 pounds of feed per head daily, and the cows learned to 

 relish it highly. 



According to Kuhn, milk and butter of normal quantity were produced on a 

 daily allowance of 2.3 pounds of fat-free fish scrap supplied with a variety of 

 other feed, no deleterious effects resulting. 



The universally affirmative results of all the recorded experiments 

 with fish scrap as a cattle feed leaves little room for doubt as to its 

 efficiency. It is, indeed, surprising that its use as a feed has not been 

 more generally introduced. This is doubtless due to the lack of ex- 

 ploitation on the part of the manufacturers, the ones most vitally 

 interested financially. 



It will be recalled that in the beginning of the cottonseed-oil indus- 

 try the expressed cake was a by-product which found use only in the 

 fertilizer industry. Its subsequent exploitation as a cattle feed gave 

 it a much enhanced value. To-day it is produced in immense and 

 constantly increasing quantities, and the portion of it which enters 

 the mixed fertilizer is proportionally less than the amount used as 

 cattle feed. We should not be surprised if in that particular the his- 

 tory of fish scrap will parallel that of cottonseed meal ; that the time 

 will soon come when it will be recognized by both manufacturer and 

 farmer that its preparation and use as a cattle feed is more profitable 

 to both than when employed only as a stimulator for growing plants. 

 And fitting, indeed, it would be that even a small part of the mil- 

 lions of pounds of combined nitrogen carried seaward annually by 

 the rivers should be returned, and after a short cycle again should be 

 rendered suitable for man's consumption. 



POSSIBILITIES IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE FISH-SCRAP INDUSTRY. 



A number of elements, all speculative in character, enter into the 

 question of the possible development of the fish-scrap industry. A 

 discussion of this topic should consider the past history of the indus- 

 try and the present supply of fish, and should have regard for the 

 probable future demand for nitrogen, for the probable increased de- 

 mand for fish for food, and for the possibly more complete utilization 

 of waste from canneries. 



This topic will be considered briefly in the light of the principal 

 influences liable to affect it. The opinions expressed are based on 



