AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
278 
FISH PIE. 
This is the favorite name of a compost of 
fish and muck or loam in some parts of 
Long Island. As this is the season in which 
this interesting dish is prepared, we have a 
few remarks upon it. The name of the com¬ 
post is not so wide of the mark as it might 
be, for it is the raw material of vegetable and 
fruit pies. The compost at the root of apple 
and pear trees, around strawberry vines, 
raspberry and blackberry bushes, will be 
transmuted into splendid fruits the first sea¬ 
son. The great fault in the manufacture of 
the pie is too much body and too little crust. 
Indeed, we have rarely met with a fish com¬ 
post that was satisfactorily made. Some 
farmers prepare it by simply plowing up a 
strip of turf under the wall, dropping the 
fish, and covering them with a single layer 
of sods, not more than six or eight inches 
deep. This is altogether too slight, and a 
large part, of the ammonia is lost. 
We have just completed-a compost heap 
that we suppose to be right, from the fact 
that little or no smell of ammonia has arisen 
from it. We first put upon the ground a 
layer of mirish turf, eight or ten inches 
thick, packed as closely as possible. The 
surface was so large that nine thousand fish 
scattered over it thinly, barely covered it. 
Upon this layer of fish we put about a foot 
of marsh muck; then eight thousand fish, 
another layer of muck, a third layer of fish, 
and a top layer of muck, at least eighteen 
inches thick. The heap as completed is 
about four feet high, and measures about 
thirty cords. A few worms worked out at 
the sides for a few days, but the effluvia was 
confined. The twenty-five thousand fish 
cost us twenty dollars upon the shore, and 
the muck the labor of digging it. The heap 
will need forking over once or twice, and 
when completed will be worth sixty dollars 
at least. The value of the muck as it lay 
in the bed, and the labor expended, we esti¬ 
mate at twenty dollars, leaving twenty dol¬ 
lars profit. All the fish is saved, and the 
muck is well cured by the decomposition. 
We are confident that shore farmers can 
not get their fertilizers any cheaper than 
by making fish compost. Where large 
quantities of muck are used with the fish, 
the land will not become exhausted, or be 
overrun with sorrel. It is better to use a 
portion of the muck in this -way, rather than 
to cast it all into the farm-yard. It saves 
the expense of once carting, to make the 
compost heap upon the ground where it is 
to be used. We would make about one 
heap for an acre of ground, and put a cord 
or two of muck to every thousand fish. 
Upon light sandy or gravelly loams, we are 
confident this compost will do much better 
service than any concentrated fertilizer. 
Shore farmers, who have plenty of muck 
upon their premises, are inexcusable for 
neglecting fish pie.— [Ed. 
EDITOR'S FARM NOTES, 
OR GI.EA' :NG9 AMONG PRACTICAL MEN. 
Eastern Connecticut — Stoningion — Fisher's 
Island for sale, a fine opening for capital 
in gardening, fc.—The Thames Hirer — 
Farming in Quinelaug Valley, c \c. 
We recently took a trip through the coun¬ 
ties of New London and Windham, Ct., 
and present an abstract from our “ notes.” 
On every hand there is evidence of new 
ideas abroad among the people. Stoning¬ 
ton, the southeast corner town of this State, 
has a hard granite soil, but it yields very 
abundantly under good cultivation. It is 
admirably adapted to the cultivation of In¬ 
dian corn, and we have no where met with 
better looking crops of this grain than are 
now standing upon these fields. An unu¬ 
sually large breadth is planted this year, 
and in some instances, the fields come down 
to the edge of tide water. This town is so 
nearly surrounded with water, and is so in¬ 
dented with coves and bays, that it pos¬ 
sesses remarkable facilities for manuring its 
soils. Immense quantities of sea-weed are 
thrown upon the shores, and upon the adja¬ 
cent islands, and it is gathered and carried 
back three or four miles from the shore. 
Upon the shore farms this is sometimes 
spread green upon the turf and plowed in, 
but more generally is carted into the yard 
as an absorbent of the gases of stable ma¬ 
nure. Farmers who live more remote from 
the water secure the weed in scows by rak¬ 
ing the flats upon which it grows. It is then 
floated up to the head of the coves, and 
carted directly from the scow to the barn¬ 
yard. The most of the weed taken in this 
way is secured in August and in the fall 
months. 
Besides this valuable fertilizer, the town 
has inexhaustible supplies of marsh mud 
and peat bogs. These are used to some ex¬ 
tent, and give great satisfaction to those 
who have tried them most largely. But the 
cheapest and best fertilizer is the fish which 
swarm along the coast all through the sum¬ 
mer and autumn. They take the porgies 
early in the season, and these are used in 
the hill for potatoes or for corn. The moss 
bunkers come early in June, and are taken 
in immense quantities, a single seine often 
catching a hundred thousand in a day. 
These are used, applied to the growing 
crops in the manner noticed in the last num¬ 
ber of the Agriculturist, and composted with 
muck in large quantities. These compost 
heaps will be spread and plowed in next 
spring. 
See Prof. Samuel W. Jolmson’s recent 
analyses, vassim. 
