796 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST, 



[May 1, 1886. 



OtVer things besides fine bone meal are frequently 

 iisdl asadii'r. Steamed b)iie flour dries more effect- 

 ively thai lone nual, but if it is ustd to auy great extent 

 the pro luct will be somewliat high in phosphate and 

 sonifcwhat low in ammonia. Eone ash is found to be a 

 si ill more absorbent substance, and it is much used to 

 dry up dissolved bones ; but bone ash contains no 

 nitrogcncus matter, and is very rich in phosphate, and 

 therefore when it is used the product is high iu phosphate 

 iiud correspondingly low io ammonia, aud, moreover, it 

 as no longer pure dissolved bones, though that name is 

 always given to it. B tine ash is not hones ; it is simply 

 impure pho.sphate of lime derived from bones, and is no 

 belter, except as a drier, than any other finely-ground 

 phosphate. The same may be said of bone char, which 

 is frequently used as a drier, and which gives the black 

 colour to many manures sold as pure dissolved bones. 

 If manufacturers think that in using these forms of bone 

 phosphate they are making pure dissolved bones, they 

 are sinqjly deceiving themselves. Any other phosphate 

 would be about as near the mark, and some manu- 

 facturers, knowing that, do not liesitate to employ any 

 convenient phosphate as a drier, aud find it makes very 

 good ' dissolved liones.' Some of the ground phosphate 

 is dissolved in the process, of course, and the product is 

 practically a mixture of dissolved bones aud superphos- 

 phate. Having gone .so far, the next step is quite 

 easy — the proportion of superphosphate may be much 

 increas-.d, and it does not need to be bone-ash super- 

 pho.sphatc, as that is no better than any other kiml, so 

 that by-and-hy a maiuire may be sold as dissolved bones 

 which con.sists largely of superphosphate, aud there are 

 to be foinid samples of dissolved bones, which are just 

 superphosphate, in which some boue meal has been used 

 as a drier, or probably as a blind, to give the stuff an 

 j'ppearauce of dissolved bones. In such cases there, will 

 be a very great deficiency of ammonia, but having gone 

 so far, there need be no difticulty iu supplying that by 

 means of .some highly nitrogenous substance, such as 

 flesh meal, which after all i.s not very far removed from 

 the nitrogenous matter of bone ; and if that is not to be 

 had, there i.s alwaj-s horn dost, ground leather, shoddy, 

 or some sinular material to fall back upon to make up 

 the analysis of dissolved boues. 



The result of all this is that by a process of /V/cfViV 

 JeccHxus, there i.s scarcely to be found a manure sold 

 ui'.der the name of dissolved bones which is a genuine 

 article. A great projjortioii of them contain no bone 

 material at all so that the term ' dis.solved bones' has 

 become in these days what is correctly described in the 

 instructions of tlie Chemical Department (Highland 

 and A;,'ricultural Society's 7'^ ffrt)«c(/o/i.s, appendix B) as 

 a conventional name applied to compound manures, 

 consisting of any kind of mixtui-o of phos2)hatic and 

 nitrogenous mattrials, which can be dissolved with (or 

 without) an admixture of bone, so iis to produce a 

 manure containing from 15 to .30 per cent soluble phos- 

 phates, and from 1 to 3 per cent of ammonia. 



Many of* these manures are excellent preparation — 

 ju.>,t as good as pure dissolved bones, perhaps better — ■ 

 aud they have the merit of being formed from material, 

 which would otherwise be allowed to go to wastes 

 There is no reason why agriculture should not get the 

 bent fit of them, and the more of such waste materials 

 that can be turned to good account the better ; but it 

 is now time that the abuse of selling them under the 

 name of dissolved bones should be abandoned. Manure 

 manufacturers make no secret of the spurious character 

 of the manures called dissolved bones, and it has become 

 quite recogni.sed in the trade that purity is not expected 

 in them, and that it is impossible to adulterate them; 

 but although the trade know that, anil most intelligent 

 buyers know it, and are accustomed to buy these 

 manures at prices at which genuine boue nriuures could 

 not be made, yet there can be no doubt that the great 

 majority of buyers are ileceived by the name ; and as 

 there is a prejudice in favour of dissolved bones rather 

 than ;iny dissolved comgiouuds, a higher price is paid for 

 them on the understanding that they are what they 

 pretend to be. This is like getting money uuder false 

 pretences, and is a reproach which the nmuiue trade 

 should get rid of as soon as possible. 



It genuine dissolved bones are desired they should be 

 bought imder a guarantee of purity. Pure dissolved 

 boues cannot contain much more than 20 per cent 

 soluble phosphate aud from 2^ to 'A per cent of ammonia. 

 When well made, it is, of course, a good manure, but 

 not a whit better than many of its imitations. 



The dissolving of bones in sulphuric acid is a wasteful 

 process not to be recommended, for by so doing the 

 bones are degraded to the level of mineral phosphates, 

 which supply soluble phosphate more cheaply and more 

 efliciently than boues. If soluble is wanted for a crop, 

 then the cheapest form of superphosphate is the best 

 thing to apply. If bones are wanted for the crop or 

 the land, then the natural bone, finely ground, is the 

 cheapest form of application. If both are wanted, both 

 should be applied separately, but to attempt to combine 

 these advantages by dissolving bones is to eifect a 

 compromise that is not economical — it is to spoil good 

 bones, and make poor superphosphate, — .North British 

 AijriciiJturid. 



♦ 



KEW AND ITS WORK. 



TlIK HeCE.VT HlSTOUT OF A Tropk'.^i. Oolon'v. 



Take a tropical colony like Ceylon, and study how 

 all the conditions of life there are revolutionised by 

 the entrance of the irrepressible Anglo-Saxon : — *' In 

 ls;.i7, when Ootfee planting was started, Ceylon was 

 a mere military dependency, with an annual revenue 

 amounting to £372,000, or less than the expenditure, 

 costing the mother country a good round sura every 

 year, the total population not exceeding 1,500,000, 

 but requiring nearly 6,000 British aud native troops to 

 keep the peace. Now we have the population in- 

 creased to 2,750,000 with only 1,200 troops, all paid 

 for out of an annual revenue which exceeded 

 £1,. '500,000; a people far better fed, educated, and 

 eared for in every way. The total export and import 

 trade since planting began has expanded from 

 £500,000 to £8,000,000 or £10,000,000, according to 

 the harvest. During the forty-five years referred to 

 some £30,000,000 or £40,000,000 have been paid away 

 in wages earned iu connection with the plajitatious 

 to Kandyan axemen, Tamil coolies, Sinhalese car- 

 penters and domestic servants. More than 200,000 

 Tamil cool.ies were saved from starvation in Ceylon 

 in the Madras famine of l."<77-8. According to ofhcial 

 papers there are more than 10,000,000 of people in 

 .Southern India whose annual earnings, taking grain 

 and Eice at its full value, do not average per family 

 of five more than ,£3 12,v. a year, or about h'l. a head 

 jjer d.ay. In Ceylon each family can earn from 9s. 

 to 12.S. a week, and save half or three-quarters of 

 that amount. Our calculation is, that from each 

 acre of Ootfee or Tea laud kept in full cultivation 

 five natives (men, women and children) derive their 

 means of subsistence. It is no wonder that, with a 

 population nearly doubled during the planting era 

 four or five times the quantity of cotton-cloth is 

 consumed, and ten times the former quantity of 

 food is imported into the i.'^land."* 



How .\ BOT.VNIC G.IUDKN CAN nEI.P THE Col.OX- 



lEs. — It is in selecting the plants for new colonies 

 or old ones that have been ruined by neglect, or 

 in hcli)ing to bring into cultivation plants valuable 

 economically that run the risk of being extermin- 

 ated in their native localities, that the help and advice 

 of a botanic garden is required, particularly for the 

 correct identification of the best species. Take, tor 

 instance, Cinchona, Indiarubber, and Gutta-percha. 



CiNeHON.v. — In temperate climates quinine is one 

 of the mo.st useful of drugs, and in tropical climates 

 it is now used universally in curing and warding off 

 fever. (Quinine and its allied alkaloids are the product 

 of the bark of trees of the genus Cinchona, which 

 is restricted in a wild state to a narrow belt of the 

 Andes of .South America, at an elevation of between 

 2,000 and S.CKiO feet above the sea-level, principally 

 aiong their eastern declivities, from Latitude lO" S in 

 Bolivia to latitude 10^ N. in Venezuela. Here, of 



by 



» Cii/lon. By W. Ferguson, F. L. S. I'p. 83—84. [No, 

 ' J. Ferguson, co-Editor of Trojiiral Ai/rifKlturist.'] 



