OF SEVERAL JAPANESE FERTILIZERS. 
precipitation with molybdic acid in the way elaborated by 
P. Wagner. 
I. Fish Manure. 
The only source of fertilizers other than produced 
by the soil, from which Japan has drawn during her long 
seclusion and still draws at present a constant supply to 
her fields, is the sea with its enormous wealth in animals 
and weeds. In the country itself nothing of guano, phos¬ 
phorites, or potassic salts has yet been found, and judging 
from the meteorological and geological conditions there is 
also hardly any hope that fertilizing materials of that des¬ 
cription will be discovered in future in quantities large 
enough to support the agriculture of the whole country. 
The sea, on the other hand, yields at present only a small 
fraction of what it might be made to contribute to the 
fertility of the land, directly, by a supply of manures, or 
indirectly, by a supply of human food. Fishing, although 
the occupation of many people, is carried on yet on a rather 
small scale and only in the proximity of the shores, and 
might be much extended by the application of modern 
methods. 
Of the enormous number of fishes that are caught 
round the Japanese islands only two kinds make up the 
bulk of the fish manure produced, e, g. herrings, Clupea 
harengus (nishin) and sardines, Clupea melanosticta and 
gracilis (iwashi). According to the official statistics re¬ 
lating to the produce of fish manure, which comprise only 
these two kinds of fishes, the total average annual quan¬ 
tity manufactured during the three years 1882-1884 a- 
mounted to 1,443,637 koku * of which -jj- were put out in the 
Hokkaido (Yezo), in Chiba prefecture, and only in all 
* 1 kolcu — 180.4 litres. 
