BULLETIN OF THE BUSSEY INSTITUTION. 157 
on account of the unpleasant flavor which it imparts to the milk; but his 
experience has been that for young growing stock or cows that have dried 
up, nothing else will give such rapidity of growth, or place them in so good 
condition in the spring. A gentleman.who has been feeding ‘chum’ to 
his sheep for two years past, and is giving it again this winter, told me that 
it would increase the weight of the fleece one pound per head over and above 
what he would get by feeding any thing else to his sheep, Indian corn only 
excepted. . . Those who have used the ‘ chum’ (as a fertilizer) associate 
with the name that peculiar (and highly offensive) odor which attaches itself 
to it unless it is properly prepared. We are now learning the proper way 
to prepare this refuse. It is taken from the press, and dried until it is as 
inodorous as dried cod-fish, and may be handled without imparting any 
offensive smell at all; and it is surprising to see with what avidity sheep 
and cows will eat it. They will pick up every bone, no matter how large or 
how small. The question has been put to me, if we did not render ourselves 
liable by allowing our sheep to eat the bones, as it is impossible for them 
to eat the ‘chum’ without the bones. I have never noticed any injurious 
effect from that. To show how eager they are for it, I will mention that 
I feed it to my sheep in the morning, and they gannot be quieted until 
they receive their ‘chum.’ I feed at the rate of two quarts a day for every 
twelve sheep. . . . There is no salt used in the preparation of the ‘ chum’ 
I use; so that it is as fresh as when the fish came from the water. 
Sheep or cattle readily learn to eat it. It is natural for them to want such 
kinds of food.”’ | 
To these remarks, Mr. Secretary Goodale added the following : — 
‘‘ With regard to herring, the practice is almost universally to pickle the 
herring, and more or less salt remains in the ‘ chum.’ Porgie ‘ chum,’ on 
the contrary, is usually quite fresh. I have had this matter of feeding 
refuse fish to sheep under observation for ten years or more. I have not 
found a single man who has given it a fair trial with good material, who 
has not found it successful. And if you will look at its composition, you 
will not wonder. . . . The fish will furnish, in an inoffensive form, a highly 
nitrogenous food, which will supply those elements of growth in which 
our poorer forage products are deficient. It will come in mainly as a 
supplement to another food. We have a good deal of bog or swale hay, 
and of other inferior fodder, and this is lacking mainly in nitrogenous 
elements, those constituents which go to make flesh; and, by giving a 
moderate amount of dried fish, you supply just what is lacking in the 
poor fodder, and it will enable you to get along with a much smaller 
amount of good hay, and thus make your hay go a good deal further. . . 
What ought to be done all along the coast is this: just as soon as the fish 
refuse comes from the press, it ought to be dried by artificial means. . . . 
It ought to be dried by artificial heat, then it should be ground, and all 
possible danger to cattle from the bones would be avoided. It can then 
be used for any cattle except cows giving milk. It would give the milk a 
