10 BULLETIN 378, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
The waste in the sardine industry affords excellent material for 
the preparation of a high-grade fish meal. As it comes from the 
packing table it has been steam cooked and partially dried in the 
process of preparing the fish for packing, and can be taken after 
collection from the packing tables directly to a plant equipped for 
pressing and drying. During the season of 1914 a quantity of 
fish meal was made in the course of experiments looking toward 
the utilization of this waste material as a stock food. A part of 
this waste is now utilized by converting it into " pomace n or " scrap " 
for use as a fertilizer. A number of experiments were made, using 
raw material varying in fat content and employing different meth- 
ods of treatment preparatory to pressing and drying. The plant 
used for the experimental work was equipped with an iron cooker 
heated directly by steam, a rack and cloth screw press capable of 
yielding a pressure of 120 tons, and an ordinary type of rotary fer- 
tilizer drier. With this equipment a yield of from 27 to 33 per cent 
of meal was obtained from'the fish residue; and from raw material 
containing from 12 to IT per cent of oil, over one-half of the oil 
was removed by pressing. The oil obtained was bright, clear, and 
of very high quality. The fish meal from these excessively fat fish 
contained 17.51 per cent of oil. After pressing and drying raw 
material which contained from 8 to 9.5 per cent oil, a dried meal 
was obtained containing from 9 to 12 per cent of fat. The average 
composition of meal obtained in six different experiments was as 
follows : 
Per cent. 
Water 7. 71 
Fat 15.19 
Total nitrogen 9. 39 
Protein (Nx6.25) 5S. 70 
Ash 15. 18 
This meal was stored in a barn at Eastport, Me., for a period of two 
or three months and was then shipped to Washington for use in 
feeding experiments after again being stored for about two months. 
The entire quantity, about 1 ton of meal comprising four of the 
experimental lots, was thoroughly mixed and was used for feeding 
experiments in cooperation with the Animal Husbandry and Dairy 
Divisions of the Bureau of Animal Industry of this department, using 
growing pigs, poultry, and dairy cows. The analysis of this meal 
and the composition of the fish are given on page ll. 1 It will be 
noted that there was a loss of 3 per cent of water during the time of 
storage and shipping. 
1 The analysis of the meal was made by H. W. Houghton; of the as-h by J. B. Wilson, 
both of the Animal Physiological CherniicSl Laboratory of the Bureau of Chemistry. 
The nitrogen determinations were all made by the Nitrogea Laboratory of the same 
bureau. 
