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THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



manure, let a Cheshire farmer, Mr. J. Dixon, of 

 Ashley, speak for himself and other Clieshire 

 farmers, as he is so well able to do. In his well- 

 earned prize essay on this very subject {Jour. 

 Roy. Ag. Sac, vol. xix. p, 204) he observes : 

 " For the last twenty years I have had rather ex- 

 tensive opportunities of examining the results from 

 the use of bones, and I have no hesitation in pro- 

 nouncing them to be pre-eminent above all other 

 manures for the improvement of grass lands when 

 permanency as well as cost are considered. Some 

 farmers prefer them boiled, on account of their 

 more immediate effect, and consider them equally 

 lasting; but from my own experience I am de- 

 cidedly in favour of raw bones ; only allow them 

 to be ground fine, and the effect will soon be 

 evident, particularly if thrown on the land in 

 early spring, and in showery weather. Of the per- 

 manent power of the raw bone I can instance a 

 case on land of which I was the tenant for 16 

 years ; it was old turf, and had been in the occu- 

 pation of the proprietors for a long time previously 

 to my becoming tenant. The extent of the land in 

 question was little more than 20 acres. About the 

 year 1790 the then proprietor had all the bones he 

 could obtain in a commercial locahty collected to- 

 gether, and broken with a heavy hammer. No 

 account was kept of the quantity or value used on 

 a given surface, but there is sufficient evidence to 

 show that an unusual dressing was given. The 

 soil is of a close tenacious character, lying on a 

 clayey subsoil. The subsoil did not contain calca- 

 reous earth, at least it did not effervesce with the 

 spirit of salts (muriatic acid). Some parts of the 

 land had a more porous substratum, and were 

 sufficiently dry for pasture; these particular parts 

 were undoubtedly the most fertile land in the dis- 

 trict. Such of the surface as was wet had scarcely 

 any other vegetable covering than the carex and 

 others of the coarsest grasses. It is, perhaps, pro- 

 per here to state that this bone-dusted land has 

 not been broken up or in tillage for a very long 

 period. On becoming tenant I immediately set 

 about draining the wet parts. In this operation we 

 found, at from five to eight inches from the surface, 

 much bone, in various stages of decomposition; 

 the large pieces, when broken, appeared fresh in- 

 side. I felt at the time some regret that much 

 value must have been lost for many years, and, as 

 I then supposed, for ever lost, on account of the 

 manure having been in soil saturated with water 

 ever since it had been laid on ; however, before 

 my draining operation had been completed twelve 

 months, the coarse herbage began to disappear, 

 and in its place appeared white clover, marl clover, 

 and others of the best pasture grasses; and in the 

 second summer after being drained, the soil was 



equally luxuriant with the naturally dry parts of 

 the laud. It is now nearly seventy years since this 

 land was boned, and it is still markedly luxuriant 

 beyond any other grass land in the same district." 

 These facts would naturally lead to the conclu- 

 sion that other manures containing the phosphate 

 of lime would be also powerful fertilizers for grass 

 land. The experience of many agriculturists testi- 

 fies that such is the fact. Guano, which abounds 

 with phosphate of lime, is a powerful dressing at 

 the rate of, say 4 to 5 cwt. per acre ; superphos- 

 phate of lime, at the rate of 6 cwt. per acre, is on 

 many soils a still more powerful application. Then 

 as to the season, many of the largest grass-land 

 farmers dress their land with even farm-yard 

 compost from November to the end of the year. 

 (The objection that the ammonia in the dung 

 escapes by a long exposure to the air, is found not 

 to be so tenable as was once believed.) Some, like 

 Mr. Horsfall, of Burley, when they do this, apply, 

 in addition, 2 cwt. of guano per acre, either in the 

 spring — or, as he observes in a letter to the Rev. 

 W. R. Bowditch {ib., p. 230), "I have derived 

 equal, if not greater benefit, from its application in 

 very wet weather in November. The grov.'th during 

 March was sensibly greater than on adjacent land 

 on which the guano was not applied till April, and 

 the main crop of hay was certainly not less than on 

 that di-essed in April." And an Irish farmer adds 

 in the same page : " My experience as to the time 

 of application exactly coincides with Mr. Horsfall's, 

 that Decem.ber is better than February for guano 

 and superphosphate : almost all the manures I 

 have tried in top-dressing pasture land — as guano, 

 superphosphate of lime, and even saline manures, 

 when applied in spring, did not show their full 

 effect until the autumn ; whereas, those applied in 

 early winter seemed to come into operation with 

 the first burst of spring, and be much more effec- 

 tual." These results of the apjilication of the same 

 manure at different seasons may be verified by my 

 readers; but, however that may be, these valuable 

 experiments all bear testimony to the same important 

 fact, viz., that there are various artificial fertilizers 

 which, when applied to grass lands, produce the 

 most powerful effects. The lomj -continued good 

 result of the bonings of the Cheshire farmers, 

 effects which are said to be perceivable during the 

 continuance of a lease, demonstrates that at least 

 one known fertilizer is useful not merely for a 

 season ; and, moreover, as the enlightened Cheshire 

 landlords have been long wont even to aid their 

 tenantry in the requisite outlay for the bones, this 

 further seems to prove that the land is not finally 

 rendered less valuable by the more bountiful, and 

 consequently more exhausting crops of grass that 

 it is thus enabled to produce. 



