66 BULLETIN 150, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



believed that they are approximately correct and can be taken as an 

 indication of what the items of expenditures and proceeds may be. 

 They indicate strongly that a plant erected and equipped for ren- 

 dering cannery waste can be applied with profit to the treatment of 

 kelp. The proviso that the plant be equipped with a drier of large 

 capacity must be introduced. In the beginning of the proposed in- 

 dustry the market on the Pacific coast would consume the entire 

 product, so that the high freight rates to the Atlantic seaboard could 

 be avoided. This would add materially to the profits. 



The products of the proposed combined fish-rendering and kelp- 

 drying plant may be disposed of separately to mixers of fertilizers, 

 or they may be mixed and retailed directly to the consumers as so- 

 called complete fertilizers. The mixture of fish scrap and dried 

 kelp would contain ammonia, potash, and phosphoric acid (bone 

 phosphate), the three substances regarded as essential ingredients 

 of a complete fertilizer. Mixed in equal proportions, the analysis 

 of the product would approximate 5 per cent nitrogen, 3.5 per cent 

 phosphoric acid, and 7 per cent potash. Such a fertilizer, from the 

 conventional point of view, would be regarded as deficient in phos- 

 phoric acid, that ingredient being added usually in larger proportion 

 than the potash or nitrogen. To make it conform to that formula, 

 acidulated phosphate rock could be added. However, this ratio is 

 purely conventional and may be disregarded. 



FISH SCRAP FROM OTHER FISH. 



It has been shown that at present about 1,630 tons of dried fish 

 scrap represents the annual output of that product from the refuse 

 from the salmon industries. In addition thereto, small quantities 

 of scrap are produced from the herring, tuna, and whale fisheries, 

 and a considerable waste is discarded in the halibut fisheries. 



HERRING. 



At Killisnoo, Alaska, is the only fertilizer plant on the coast using 

 herring as its raw material. The company operating the plant was 

 organized in 1889. In 1909 the plant was equipped with new and 

 improved apparatus. The methods in vogue .are the same as those 

 employed in the menhaden industry on the Atlantic coast. 



The Killisnoo plant uses about 40,000 barrels of 200 pounds each 

 of raw herring per year, from which about 1,000 tons of dry scrap 

 and 3,500 barrels of oil are yielded. 



The herring utilized are obtained in the waters of and adjacent to 

 southeastern Alaska. In the same region there has been developed 

 a small herring fishery which salts herring for the market. This 

 industry, presumably, is only in its infancy. However, at present 



