PRACTICAL HINTS ON FARMING. 41 



same fraud as the maiiiifoctiircr vrbo misrepresents the con- 

 stituents of his fertilizer. I have recently heard of a 

 counterfeit of this kind M'here 1,500 pounds of coal-dust and 

 ashes were found in one ton of a substance sold for bone-dust. 



Much discrimination is necessary in the use of fertilizers, 

 even when honestly prepared. Many of them, like .patent 

 medicines, are represented as embodying all the qualities 

 necessary for any crop, and applicable to any soil, when, 

 indeed, many of them are useless because of incongruous chem- 

 ical composition, or the prevalence of ingredients not needed, 

 or oversupplied in the soil for the crops to be produced. 



At Bingen on the Rhine, where the produce and develop- 

 ment of the vine were highly increased by manuring them 

 "with shavings of horn, it became evident, after a few 3^ears, 

 that the wood and leaves were decreasing rapidly, the special 

 fertilizer havins; too much hastened the oTowth of the vines, 

 and had exhausted the potash in the formation of the first 

 supply of leaves and wood, so that none remained for 

 future crops, because while horn-shavings highly fertilize the 

 grape, they supply no potash to produce the vines. A dressing 

 of cow-dung supplied the want, and the vine flourished as 

 before. If the nitrogen had been exhausted instead of the 

 potash, the cow-dung would not have succeeded. And if you 

 find your old pastures exhausted and the flow of milk falling 

 ofi", the application of a couple of barrels of bone-dust to the 

 acre Avill restore fertility to the soil, because bone-dust 

 furnishes the phosphate of lime which the pasture needs. 

 More than half of the weight of bone-dust is pure phosphate 

 of lime and magnesia. Sixteen pounds of bone-dust will 

 supply enough of phosphate to produce a ton of the best hay. 

 But it requires moisture to make it active in dry seasons, and 

 therefore on a sandy soil, it oftens fails the first year. 



Hair, horn and woollen rags are still more valuable as 

 fertilizers, being nearly pure in the chemical qualities required 

 by the soil, but they must be rendered soluble by artificial 

 means for immediate use as a fertilizer. Blood and flesh, so 

 highly valued by many farmers, contain ninety per cent, of 

 water, and it requires ten tons of them to equal, in fertilizing 

 power, one ton of hair, horn or woollen rags, when dissolved 

 by time or artificial process. Bear in mind, no manure or 

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