AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
357 
FISH MANURE. 
(Continued from p. 347.) 
Now, as to the supply of the raw material. 
Attention was, of course, turned to this at an 
early stage of the affair. Information was col¬ 
lected at the outposts on the British and Irish 
coasts, and from persons resident in or well 
acquainted with our colonics; and much inform¬ 
ation collected from the voluinminous reports of 
her Majesty’s Commissioners of Irish Fisheries, 
and the report of Mr. J. D. Andrews “ On the 
resources of our North American Colonies,” 
prepared by order of the Congress of the United 
States, in 1851. It appears from Mr. Andrews’ 
report to the American Congress that the Great 
Bank Fishery of Newfoundland, which formerly 
employed 400 sail of square-rigged vessels and 
25,000 men, is now entirely deserted, owing to 
the withdrawal of bounties. It is a submarine 
elevation 600 miles long and 200 broad, covered 
with cod fish, of which 10 or 12 men can take 
50 tons in a short season, yielding four tons of 
oil. He gives the exports in fish of the British 
colonies as under: 
From Newfoundland, in 1850, 
“ Cape Breton, in 1848, 
“ Nova Scotia, in 1851, 
“ Canada, in 1851, 
“ New Brunswick, in 1850, 
“ Labrador, in 1851, 
Cwt. 949,169 
“ 41,364 
“ 196.434 
“ 224,000 
Lbs. 263,500 
“ 1,000,000 
It may be imagined what a vast quantity of 
valuable manure might be made from the mere 
refuse of the curing establishments at work to 
procure the above vast total of dried cod fish 
only, seeing that fully one-third of the gross 
weight is thrown into the sea, as the waste of 
the manufacture. This was stated by a mem¬ 
ber of the Council of Newfoundland to be in 
some places an absolute nuisance to the com¬ 
munity of that island, from the formation of 
banks of refuse matter on the shores. Although 
the demand for dry salt fish is not very likely to 
increase more than pari passu with the Roman 
Catholic population of the world, it may well be 
imagined that, were a new market opened, we 
might hear of the Great Banks of Newfoundland 
being again covered with the cloud of shipping 
which was withdrawn after the year 1814. An¬ 
other extract from the writings of Professor 
Way shall conclude this division of the subject. 
He says, very briefly, “ Fish may be taken as 
the type of animal, wheat of vegetable life; and 
there can be no doubt of their mutual converti¬ 
bility when placed in the proper circumstances. 
I have dwelt upon this point in order to show 
how very valuable a source of manure, and con¬ 
sequently of food, we have in the waters that 
surround our shores, if we could work out the 
problem as one of economy. Practically, we 
do so this day by bringing guano, which is 
digested fish, from foreign parts.” 
In the third place we have to consider the 
cost of this manufacture, or, to use the expres¬ 
sion just quoted, “ how to work out the problem 
as one of economy.” Estimates are, as is well 
known, most treacherous ground, and in those 
which here follow it must be borne in mind 
that, from the well-known variation in the prices 
of fuel and materials, in cost of transit, and in 
rates of wages, there is no pretence of any thing 
beyond a fair approximation. 
The cost of fish is arrived at from due con¬ 
sideration of the two methods of obtaining it, 
which are—1st, Fishing for it in your own boats; 
or, 2nd, Purchasing it by contract. The first of 
these plans is open to objection prima facie, as 
having an appearance of centralization; and it 
has, moreover, been always found that associ¬ 
ated fishery companies have met with ill success. 
Still, however, whole fishing communities have 
been found willing to exchange their uncertain 
gains for regular pay. The second method has 
been also hailed as a boon in numerous places 
on the coast, where the ideas of the fishery pop¬ 
ulation have been sought for on the subject. 
Those unacquainted with the subject will scarcely 
credit that the fish which appears at Billings¬ 
gate at 6d. to Is. per lb., hardly fetches more on 
the Yorkshire coast than £1 10s. to £2 10s. per 
ton, and very often less; and that thousands of 
tons of coarse, common, waste, and broken fish 
are annually taken round our shores for manure 
only, and delivered into farmers’ carts at from 
8 s. to 10s. a ton. We may safely count on a 
great quantity of fish, either taken by the fleet 
of an association, or bought by contract, at a 
cost all round of £1 per ton. 
Taking 60 tons weekly, at 20s., the raw fish 
will thus come to, annually, - - £3,120 
6 per cent, of sulphuric acid, at £7 per 
ton, -.672 
Labor, of all sorts, 15s. per ton, - 2,340 
Fuel, 5s. per ton,.780 
Sacks for 1,653 tons guano, at 7s. per 
ton, ------ 578 
Agency for sale of same, at £1 per ton. 1,653 
Interest, wear and tear, and minor 
charges, ----- 1,500 
Total, - - - - £10,643 
Sales— 
3 per cent, of oil on 3,120 tons 
of fish, or 93 tons sold at £25 
per ton, - v - - £2,325 
1,653 tons of guano, at £7 per 
ton, ... - 11,571-13,896 
Profit, --- - £3,258 
In this estimate advantage has been taken of 
the profits from the fish oil, to reduce the price 
of the manure to £7, while its intrinsic value, 
as previously shown, is £9 7s. 7d. per ton. 
Were the whole of the charges incidental to the 
manufacture to be thrown upon the guano, it 
appears that its production would cost £4 18s. 
per ton, and that it should realize £7 at least; 
and this is the answer to the third question. 
The fourth query, it will be remembered, was 
whether a sale would be found for the manure 
when made. It is almost superfluous to enter 
upon an argument which can after all only ar¬ 
rive at a probability ; but the reason why a 
strong probability exists shall be touched upon, 
simply to obviate a possible objection that this 
point has not been considered. It is assumed 
that there is a very great necessity and ready 
market for some manure, and that the fisheries 
guano can be sold at the price before stated. It 
remains to see whether it has the qualities of a 
saleable article. There remains for the consid¬ 
eration of this society one point which should 
by no means be foreign to its objects. These 
are the possible national and social advantages 
of the scheme. The depressed condition of 
much of the fishing population of Ireland, and 
many parts of Scotland, has been too long and 
too often before the public to need detail here. 
Since the withdrawal of the fishery bounties for 
the last time in 1827, which had in five years 
doubled the number of men employed, the fish¬ 
eries of the west have again receded to their 
old level. The Crown Commissioners have 
most honorably and sagaciously administered, 
since the commencement of the present century, 
more than £250,000 in the relief of the Irish 
fisheries alone, but with comparatively little re¬ 
sult. It was vain that piers were built, harbors 
deepened, and loans in boats and nets made to 
the fishermen. For a time he caught the fish, 
but who was to buy it? The State could not 
give the Irish population money to buy what 
they had paid the fishermen to catch. The 
fisheries have therefore obstinately declined, in 
face of State encouragement and of chartered 
companies, which had for their object the pro¬ 
viding vast quantities of edible fish for the great 
markets. But if we demand of the fishermen 
10 , 20, or 100 tons of marine matter of all sorts 
and conditions, instead of his customary selec¬ 
tion ; if, in fact, we nail over the factories the 
homely old proverb—“All is fish that comes to 
our net,” we surely must and shall drag forth 
more labor, and fully employ all who at present 
wretchedly divide their time between sea and 
land; and, half farmer, half sailor, are compara¬ 
tively cripples in either vocation. As a nation, 
we are thankful thatyt’ne sea-faring life has 
always been most alluring to the natives of these 
island. Those who pursue their business on the 
waters are fain to continue their calling in spite 
of grinding poverty in every form. The heart 
of many an observing traveller has been moved 
at the sight of the wretched man, the crazy ill- 
found shallop, and the ruinous hut, that com¬ 
pose, so to sa 3 r , an Irish or Hebridean fisherman 
and his stock, and at the reflection that this 
should be the raw material of the British sailor. 
The fisheries have always, with the sea-borne 
coal trade, been esteemed the nurseries of our 
national navy; and we have now more than a 
little difficulty in manning our fleets, to speak 
in the most reserved manner; and that difficulty 
will not diminish with an increase in the num¬ 
ber of ships of war, unless, indeed, there were 
at the same time a vast and lamentable reduc¬ 
tion in the commercial shipping of the country. 
This very commercial marine is now inadequate 
to the work of the traders. More ships and 
more men are wanted for commerce ; more ships 
and more men are called for, to protect British 
rights and serve British interests in every quar¬ 
ter of the globe. It cannot surely then be out 
of place to suggest that a plan which, having 
borne investigation in a commercial and scien¬ 
tific point of view, shall offer even a symptom 
of benefit to the nurseries of our sailors, becomes 
of almost national importance and worthy of 
public consideration. 
(To be continued.) 
Great Profit of Peaches. —Six years ago, 
an honest hard-working man went from the vici¬ 
nity of Norwich, Connecticut, out to the far 
West. He had in his pocket a small capital of 
only four hundred dollars, which he had care¬ 
fully husbanded against a rainy day, On ar¬ 
riving at his place of destination, he wisely 
purchased for himself a snug little farm, which 
he stocked as much as it could bear—not with 
wheat, corn, sheep or cattle, but with peach 
trees. His neighbors, no doubt, thought him 
foolish and visionary, but he kept his own coun - 
sel. His second crop of peaches yielded him 
sufficient to pay for his land, and leave him a 
gain of four hundred dollars besides. But this 
year his immense peach orchards |vielded him, 
at the least calculation, a clear profit of thirty 
thousand dollars .—Augusta ( Ga.) Republic. 
-• ••- 
Feeding Animals with Hay.—A great loss 
is frequently sustained by feeding animals too 
often, and giving them too large quantities at a 
time. In this way, by having a great pile of 
fodder for a long time before them, which is 
rendered more foul and offensive by their con¬ 
stantly breathing upon it while rooting it over 
and over, it is imperfectly eaten, and a large 
part perhaps wasted. To prevent this, hay 
should be given frequently and in small quanti¬ 
ties, especially when placed in racks of mangers, 
as it should always be when fed out. For 
where hay is scattered over the ground, a 
greater or less quantity is always wasted ; and 
if the ground is at all muddy, half of it, at least, 
is sure to be trodden under foot and spoiled. 
-#©•- 
Important Insurance Decision. —The Court 
of Appeals recently decided that, where the use 
or keeping of Camphene was prohibited in the 
policy of insurance, the fact of its being kept 
or used voided the policy, and if its use or 
storage on the premises should be discontinued, 
the policy would still be void, and further, if a 
fire occurred from other causes, by which the 
premises w r ere destroyed, the insured could not 
recover. 
Vermont. —There is but one city in the State, 
and not one soldier. We have no police, and 
not a murder has been committed in this State 
within the last ten years. We have no muse¬ 
ums, nor crystal palaces, but we have homes, 
genuine homes, that are the center of the world 
to their inmates, for which the father works, 
votes, and talks—where the mother controls, 
educates, labors, and loves—where she re are 
men, scholars, and patriots. 
