622 
FISH AS CATTLE FOOD. 
different. Here numerous herds mingled on open commons and 
unfenced lots, so that infection spread easily from herd to herd, 
and as fresh cows were being constantly purchased to replace 
those that had become dry or fat, there was at no time any lack 
of susceptible animals for the infection to lay under its malig¬ 
nant spell. 
(To be continued.') 
FISH AS CATTLE FOOD. 
There are records nearly 50 years old showing that fish 
was used a good deal as food for cattle upon portions of the 
Massachussets coast. The Maine farmers, as early as 1864, 
found fish pomice (from herring) a valuable food for sheep, 
swine, and poultry. Mr. W. D. Dana, in the report of the 
Board of Agriculture of Maine for that year, states that 
“ sheep thrive well, get fat, and yield heavier fleeces when 
fed upon this food than when fed upon anything else produced 
in this section of the state. 55 Careful and observing farmers 
who fed it asserted that it was equal to good hay, ton for 
ton, and that as a manure it lost none of its value by having 
passed through this “ living mill/ 5 
Experiments in feeding fish scrap to sheep, to test its value 
as compared with corn meal, were conducted through 16 
weeks of 1875 by Professor Farrington, at the State College 
at Orono, Me., and he says the corn-fed stock gained 48 lbs., 
while the increase in weight of the stock fed upon fish scrap 
was 47 J lbs. 
In the fish commission report for 1877, Professor Atwater 
states that “ the chief defect of our fodder materials, as a 
whole, is the lack of nitrogen; and this is true of forage crops 
in general, and of poor hay, straw, and corn crops in 
particular/ 5 He says further, that nitrogen is the one thing 
most needed in profitable stock-feeding; that it will make 
manure plenty and rich, and the crops large and nutritious ; 
and that in fish products we find one of the cheapest, most 
useful, and best forms in which it may be furnished. 
Mr. Wilder, of Pembroke, Me., feeds his sheep upon thrashed 
straw, with one half pound of dried fish scrap per day to each 
sheep. He claims that the animals are more eager for it than 
for grain, and come out in the spring in better condition than 
when fed on corn and good English hay .—The Farmers 3 
Gazette , Dublin. 
