UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



Si^'^^U 



BULLETIN No. 378 



Joint Contribution from the Bureau of Chemistry, 



CARL L. ALSBERG, Chief, and the 

 Bureau of Animal Industry, A. D. MELVIN, Chief 



Washington, D. C. 



PROFESSIONAL PAPER 



August 22, 1916 



FISH MEAL: ITS USE AS A STOCK AND POULTRY 



FOOD. 



By F. C. Webee, 



Chemist in Charge, Animal Physiological Chemical Lalioratory, 

 Bureau of Chemistry, 



CONTENTS. 



Page. 



Introduction 1 



Review of literature 3 



Composition and qualities of fish 



meal 9 



Feeding experiments 11 



General methods for the manufac- 

 ture of fish meal 16 



Page; 

 Opinions of the trade In regard to 



feeding fish meal 18 



Raw material available for fish 



meal 19 



General conclusions 20 



INTRODUCTION. 



The use of fish meal in this country at the present time for feeding 

 purposes is so limited that it may be said that in commercial quan- 

 tities it^has scarcely begun to be marketed. The Connecticut Agri- 

 cultural Experiment Station ^ in its report on feeding stuffs for the 

 year 1914 gives the results of examination of one commercial brand 

 sold by an eastern firm. Fish meal is used by another eastern firm as 

 the protein basis of a poultry food. It has been prepared for some 

 time OR the Pacific coast, and there are several brands already on the 

 market from that region. One of these products is made of a mixture 

 of fish meal and meat meal. As commercial by-products fish and the 

 waste residue from fish have always in this country been converted 

 into so-called " scrap " or " pomace " for use as a fertilizer ingre- 

 dient. An entire industry, the fish-scrap fertilizer industry along the 

 Atlantic coast, has grown up, in which a single species of fish, the 

 menhaden, is used as a source of raw material. In the early days 



1 Conn. Agr. Exp. Sta. Rpt. 1914, pt. 4, p. 221. 

 Note. — The object of this publication is to set forth the value of fish meal as a food 

 for domestic animals, in order to stimulate its more general use as a supplementary 

 stock food and to encourage its manufacture for that purpose. 

 42864°— 16 1 



