SHARK MANURE.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 409, 19 January 1909, Page 2

SHARK MANURE.

Shark manuro and-other fislii made at Port Chalmers,. Mocralsi," Port-Ahu- ' J riri, and Matakaiia. Tho usual .products'of

theso works arp,. shark-liver oil. and ifertiliser. Among other :uses shark-liver .oil. is'recommended as a cheap and valuable' calf food, added to tho skim milk to replace tho ex- ■ tractod croam. r Whether -shark-liver oil will prove, like cod-liver oil,'a deterrent of. tuberculosis, has yet ,to bo established, but if it should do so, tho supplies aro increasing, ..and '5 we; may : . therefore hopo for . . healthier . dairy stock m tho future. Fish manure is a quick acting manure. The Government chomist has found it to con;tain, 10 per cont.-_nitrogon, which makes it .. .v as f valuablo as .dried blooil for its nitrogen ■ alone,,. New Zealand' farmers apply 400 tons of nitrogen to their soils per, annum in bonedust. It would, take I '4ooo''tons'' of shark : "scrap to : give . the >same amount, of nitrogen. Bone-dust, •of course, contains less nitrogen and more phosphork acid than fish manure"; and it .is not so quick in action. Pish bone-dust is' another product. of ..the : fish works.; ■As)' anradjuiict; to"'bone-dust' farmers \vonld probably find the fish ' manure, a ver.v satisfactory;:- fertiliser The', encouragement • | of'thei.-fish, manure-industry.'encourages, also the 'destruction "of tho sliai'ks which abound in Now Zealand waters, and' tho consequent preservation of tho edible fish.. Pish' man-. . ures'are'not much'. 1 on,the market outside of ". early 'stages 1 , the : mdustry; is .bo . not* 'very-profitable, ®nd a Government bonus for the first,output of' a Specified; ,quanta't.v has been suggested . .. as " 'an-'incentive : tb'.;those " who . have -their . capital in tho'business. • •'