FISH-SCRAP FERTILIZER INDUSTRY OF ATLANTIC COAST. 43 
the manufacturers of the atmospheric products certainly are in a po- 
sition to supply immense quantities of nitrogenous fertilizers. 
The present great source of combined nitrogen in this country 
is ammonium sulphate from the by-product coke oven. The un- 
recovered ammonia, liberated in the old form of coke oven, the 
beehive, is more than enough to supply the fertilizer trade with 
all the fixed nitrogen it demands. Should this amount be ren- 
dered available by a sudden improvement in the coking process, the 
preparation of fish scrap for fertilizer use doubtless would become 
commercially infeasible. It is more probable that the increase in the 
output of ammonium sulphate will keep pace with the increase in 
demand therefor, and that the price fluctuations will be gradual and 
slight. 
In recapitulation, then, it may be said that while the demand for 
nitrogen compounds of animal or vegetable origin undoubtedly will 
continue to increase, the prospects for the supply of inorganic nitrog- 
enous compounds are quite bright. While the fertilizer industry, 
perhaps, prefers the former, it is quite independent of them so long 
as the supply of the latter is ample. So, should the price of fish 
scrap be increased, it appears probable that increased amounts of 
ammonium sulphate, and, in the future, atmospheric products would 
take its place. In the light of these considerations, then, it does not 
appear reasonable to believe that the demand for and the price 
offered for fish scrap for fertilizer purposes will materially increase. 
IN THE LIGHT OF THE POSSIBLE INCREASED DEMANDS FOR FISH FOR FOOD. 
The fact is forced upon our attention daily that the cost of food 
is increasing. This can only mean either that food is becoming more 
scarce in proportion to population, or that the expense of getting it 
to the consumer is increasing, or both. The decrease in the exporta- 
tion of American food products is an indication that the former is 
true, and the continued elaboration and extension of the middleman 
system of handling produce undoubtedly makes the latter true. A 
number of possibilities may be realized which will operate to in- 
crease the abundance and availability of farm produce, so that the 
increase in production of food can keep pace with the increase in 
population for a great many years to come. However, should this 
increase in production not come to pass, the increasing scarcity of 
food in general, arid of nitrogenous food in particular, will make it 
imperative that the fish of the sea be more economically utilized. 
This will mean at first a gradual stimulation of the present fisheries 
engaged in catching the so-called food fishes, especially those whose 
catches are preserved for shipment long distances and for consump- 
tion at times and places in which fresh fish are not available. 
