114 ECONOMICAL GEOLOGY. , 



The value of these fish for manure is well known; but 

 the best methods of applying them has not been at all 

 understood. They have been usually spread upon the 

 surface, or very incompletely covered with earth in the 

 compost heap or the field ; so that in their decay they 

 have filled the air with their odor, and generated swarms 

 of flies. Their cheapness, and their eflBciency as manure, 

 are strongly in their favor, and enable them to maintain 

 their ground in spite of these objections. By composting 

 them with muck, or other vegetable matter, in sufficient 

 quantity, these offensive products could be avoided, and 

 the whole of the fertilizing properties of the fish retained. 

 The amount of absorbent material necessary to mix with 

 them I do not know. It is said that in Cambridgeshire, 

 England, a compost of one barrel of fish refuse to four or 

 five cart-loads of earth, is approved by the farmers. And 

 it is probable that from five to ten times as much of the 

 absorbent as of the fish should be used. 



A correspondent of the " Country Gentleman," Vol. 5, 

 p. 152, writing from Worcester County, Mass., says : " In 

 all the towns on the North Shore, fish are extensively used 

 as a manure. Most of the fish caught at this season are 

 for salting; and the refuse, which is very considerable, 

 consisting of heads, backbones, &c., when mixed with 

 muck, and allowed to ferment for a few months, makes an 

 excellent fertilizer. For corn, potatoes, and turnips, he 

 has used it in this way with great success. It appears to 

 ameliorate the effects of drouth." 



These fishes are used all along the New Jersey shore. 

 A common way of applying them on corn, is to plow the 



