MENHADEN

a fish somecn what resembling the shad but smaller, averaging about twelve inches in length, very ' plentiful along the North At- - -_ lantic coast. Its rdle in its own world of — salt water seems to be to grow and propagate in order ies to serve as food for other fishes, for it is devoured yavenously and in staggeringly great quantities by the cod and the bluefish. and many others of its contemporaries. Mankind eats sparingly of it, for it is rather exce ively bony and oily, but holds it in high value as bait for the cod aud other fisheries, as well as for the industrial oil extracted from it and for the expre ed residue which is used as fertilizer. _ It has indeed been a part of our economic life from the earliest days, for the eastern tribes of North-American Indians had used the whole fish as a fertilizer for their corn hills prior to the coming of Columbus, and their example was followed and long practised by the white settlers.