26 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



runny years, without receiving suitable returns, must of neces- 

 sity be greatly exhausted of those substances which, in the 

 economy of nature, are appropriated to the growth and support 

 of bone and muscle, and to the production of milk ; and that 

 thorough renovation can be effected only by restoring those 

 substances to the soil. Different modes of restoring these 

 properties have been practiced, but it matters little how the 

 effect is produced, provided it shall be thorough and at saving 

 cost. 



In every ten gallons of milk, there is about half a pound of 

 bone earth ; hence, a cow that gives twenty quarts of milk a 

 day, takes from the soil about two pounds of phosphate of lime 

 every week, and to restore this, three pounds of bone dust are 

 required. 



" Bone dust and sulphuric acid, mixed in equal parts by 

 weight, and left until the acid has decomposed the substance 

 of the bones," have been applied with satisfactory results. By 

 this process, "the substances of which the bones are composed, 

 are very minutely divided," and arc thus " more readily taken 

 up by the roots of the plants." This preparation may be con- 

 veniently applied by mixing it with plaster, loam, powdered 

 charcoal, &c, or to this mixture may be added thirty times its 

 bulk of water, and applied in a liquid state. 



Bones are best suited to dry or well drained land, and may 

 take the place of a part or the whole of the farm-yard manure. 

 When thus used, it is well to combine them with wood ashes. 



Ploughing exhausted pastures will be found of little avail — 

 except to destroy weeds and bushes — without a suitable appli- 

 cation of manure, as ploughing will restore nothing of which 

 the soil has been deprived by long and close feeding. Manure, 

 in suitable quantities, is indispensable, but any kind that will 

 produce good crops of Timothy and clover, will answer the 

 purpose. 



It is the opinion of the committee, founded upon some expe- 

 rience, that old pastures may, in many instances, be renovated 

 by turning them over smoothly, late in autumn, applying with 

 the harrow a liberal quantity of manure in the spring, and 

 seeding witli Timothy, red-top and clover — with or without a 

 crop of wheat, barley or other small grain. " If the season con- 

 tinues dry after the crop of grain has been removed, the young 



