FISH-SCRAP FERTILIZER INDUSTRY OF ATLANTIC COAST. 6 
are closely allied. The accumulation of full information concerning 
the fish-scrap industry is essential as a preliminary step toward the 
furtherance of that industry. 
HISTORICAL. 
The fish-scrap industry may be said to have had its inception even 
before the advent of white settlers on the American Continent. Prac- 
tices were in vogue which led directly to that industry. The custom 
existed among the Indians of New England of fertilizing their crops 
by means of fish. It is stated that for fertilizing corn, one or two 
fish were placed in each corn hill. This practice was adopted by the 
colonists, and extended to the scattering of fish broadcast over the 
fields. In later years, where the latter practice was carried to an ex- 
treme, it was found that it resulted in serious detriment to the soil 
because of the accumulation therein of the undecomposed oil from the 
fish. Later, it was found that the oil could be readily removed from 
the fish without impairing their usefulness for fertilizer purposes. 
This was accomplished by placing the fish in hogsheads or barrels, 
covering with water, compressing with weighted boards, and allow- 
ing to stand for the putrefaction of the fish to release the oils. The 
oil rose to the surface and was skimmed off. The residue was spread 
upon the land. The oil thus obtained was put to various uses in the 
domestic enterprises of the farms. It was soon found that cooking 
the fish released the oils as effectually as disintegration through 
putrefaction, and very much more quickly and less offensively. 
For the farmers living near the shore it became a part of the 
year's routine to prepare fish scrap and, incidentally, oil for the 
year's supply. As the spring was regarded as the best time for the 
application of this fertilizer, a few weeks of the spring were devoted 
to fishing and rendering. The apparatus necessary, seines and pots, 
often were owned and operated in common. 
In time pot cooking was superseded by the adoption of steam 
cookers; the first factory for cooking by steam was a small one put 
up near Portsmouth, R. I., in 1841. 1 
In 1850 Daniel Wells built a factory on Shelter Island, N. Y. That was the 
first factory of considerable size on the coast, and the quantity of fish handled 
amounted to 2,000,000 or 3,000,000 in number annually. In 1853 Mr. Wells 
built a new factory on Shelter Island and the old one was removed to Groton, 
Conn., being the first steam factory in that State. The first factory in Maine 
was put up in 1863 at South Bristol, and in 1866 11 factories were built in 
Maine. In 1869 the factory at South Bristol, Me., was removed to Fair Port, 
Va., and was the first factory in that State. 2 
The subsequent development of the industry was marked by the 
introduction of the purse seine, 3 facilitating the capture of fish in 
1 Aquatic Products in Arts and Industries, Charles H. Stevenson. Appen. to Kept, of 
U. S. Fish Comm., 1902, pp. 177-279. 
a Quoted from Stevenson, loc. cit. 
* Further discussed under Technology. 
