230 



able for use as a fertilizer the animal bones which accumulate about a farm, or may 

 be bouglit cheaply at a neighboring village. A simple method of doing this without 

 the use of acid is as follows : Crash the bones as thoroughly as possible and provide 

 a barrel of fresh-burned liiue and three barrels of strong, unleached hard wood ashes 

 for every barrel of crushed bone. Use as a base, or mixing hearth, a tight floor, or a 

 level layer of loamy soil about 6 inches thick. Upon this spread a barrel of 

 ashes, in a similar layer. Then, in a thinner layer, half a barrel of bone; scat- 

 ter through the bone, to fill the spaces, and spread upon it half a barrel of 

 lime, pulverized, but not slaked. On this sjiread a second barrel of ashes. Wet 

 this pile gradually with a sprinkler, using about 10 gallons of water, or enough to 

 moisten all, but have none run out. Add in like manner a half barrel of bone, a 

 half barrel of lime, a barrel of ashes, and 10 gallons more of water. Over all scatter 

 about 1 bushel of land plaster, and cover the entire pile with dry loam. . Examiae 

 the pile once a week, and add water, if needed, to keep all moist, but not wet. In 

 four or five weeks shovel over. and thoroughly mix, moisteu, and pile again, cover 

 with soil and a little more plaster, and leave two or three weeks longer. If pieces of 

 bone then remain uudecomposed, sift them out to use in next compost, or add more 

 quicklime and ashes and give further time. 



Continuous use of phosphoric acid. — The lesson taught by the facts and 

 consicleratious given in the bulletin seems to be — 



To keep on using phosphates, andacidphosphates, in generous quantity without ap- 

 prehension. Yet, if phosphates are largely used through a series of years, the time 

 may come when the soil holds not only a surplus of phosphoric acid, but so much as 

 to be superfluous. This will be plainly shown in practice by the failure of further 

 applications of phosphate to produce an eft'ecfi. If this condition is reached it should 

 be promptly observed ; then pliosphatic applications should be entirely omitted for a 

 time. And potash, lime, and very likely nitrogen, will then prove profitable, to make 

 more available and effective the surplus store of phosphoric acid. 



A single line of investigation now in progessljub far from conclusive, indicates that 

 the long-continued use of acid phosphates upon light, sandy lands may be injurious 

 by changing the physical character of the soil, rendering it looser and more sandy. 

 It may be that some qualification of the foregoing statements will become necessary, 

 but present knowledge of the subject justifies only this brief allusion to it. The 

 whole field of soil i)hysic3 is comparatively unexplored, but is receiving more and 

 more attention. Fronc studies in that line much may be expected of practical value, 

 bearing directly upon tillage and the application of manures and fertilizers. 



Digest of AFaryJand fertilizer law o/1890. — The term commercial fer- 

 tilizer is made to include any article, substance, or mixture for manurial 

 purposes, of which the selling price shall be more than $10 per ton. 

 Every inspector, manufacturer, manipulator, dealer, or agent is required 

 to take out a license, issued from the 1st of May of each year, for the 

 sale of fertilizers, the license fee being $5 for the first 100 tons or less, 

 and $3 for each additional 100 tons. In case more than the amount al- 

 lowed for by the license is sold, $5 is to be paid for each 100 tons of the 

 excess. 



Every package or lot of fertilizer must be accompanied by a state- 

 ment showing the net pounds of fertilizer in the package or lot ; the 

 name under which the fertilizer is sold; the name and address of the 

 importer, manufacturer, or manipulator; the place of manufacture or 

 manipulation ; and a chemical analysis stating only the minimum per 

 cent of nitrogen or its equivalent in available ammonia, potash soluble in 



