NEW- YORK STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



93 



'iinder the <»uidance of science, both tenants and 

 proprietors will, by and by, learn to estimate more 

 correctly what the crops really carry off, and what 

 the soil therefore requires. Thus a strictly scien- 

 tific economy will be established, and no more of 

 any thing will be added to his fields than the farmer 

 knows and understands to be necessary to maintain 

 them in a state of permanent fertility. 



2. Heating the bones. In some districts their 

 action in hasteninfr forward the young turnip, and 

 bringing it quickly into rough leaf, where it is safe 

 from the attacks of the fly, is increased by laying 

 the bones in a heap, and covering them over with 

 earth, for a week or ten days before they are drilled 

 into the land. Left in this state, they heat, soften, 

 and begin to change or decompose ; and thus, when 

 laid in the drills near the seed, they are ready to 

 furnish nourishment to the young plant as soon as 

 the roots first thrust themselves downwards from 

 the sprouting seed. 



3. Fermenting them with dung, or the same de- 

 composition is effected and carried further by mix- 

 ing the bones with farm yard manure, and leaving 

 the mixture awhile to ferment. It was the result 

 of trials made by thirteen different persons, and 

 which are recorded in the Doncaster report, that a 

 given weight of bones, when mixed and fermented 

 with farm yard manure, invariably produced a 

 more beneficial effect, than the same weight of 

 dry-bone dust, applied to the same crop and upon 

 the same soil. 



The advantage which results from these several 

 methods, arises from the effects which they pro- 

 duce, either in diminishing the mechanical cohe- 

 rence of the particles of the bone, or in altering by 

 incipient decomposition, the chemical state of the 

 organic matter it contains. None of them, how- 

 ever, sufficiently effect these objects, though I do 

 not doubt that fine bone-dust, fermented for two or 

 three months with farm-yard manure, and occa- 

 sionally turned over, would be brought into a condi- 

 tion more nearly approaching to guano, in its ferti- 

 lizing virtue, than any other form of bones which 

 has hitherto been generally employed. 

 § 7. Decomposing and Dissolving Bones by means 

 of Sulphuric Acid. 



But another mode of preparing bones has recently 

 been introduced, and for two or three years has 

 been extensively employed as apart of the ordinary 

 husbandry, especially by some of the Scottish farm- 

 ers. This mode consists in decomposing, and more 

 or less dissolving bones in sulphuric acid, (oil of 

 vitriol) . This may be done in various ways, and 

 the prepared bones may either be applied in a liquid 

 state with a watering cart, or may be dried and 

 sowed with a drilling machine, or broad cast, like 

 ordinary bone or rape dust. 



a. The bones in the form of bone dust, or where 

 bone mills are not at hand, simply broken in pieces 

 with a hammer, may be put into a cast iron, stone, 

 earthen-ware, or strong wooden vessel, mixed with 

 half their weight of boiling water, and then with 

 half their weight of the strong oil of vitrol of the 

 shops, stirring constantly while the latter is slowly 

 poured in. A powerful boiling up takes place which 

 gradually subsides. 



By occasional stirring, the whole assumes the ap- 



pearance of a thick paste, the pieces of bone gra- 

 dually disappear, and after a week or ten days the 

 whole may be taken out and mixed with a little 

 charcoal powder, charred peat, saw dust or fine 

 dry earth, to make it dry enough to pass through 

 the drill, and may thus be immediately applied to 

 the land. It would, however, be better to prepare 

 the bones a month at least before using them, and 

 lay them up in a heap for a while, with a view to 

 their more perfect decomposition. When the 

 pieces of bone are large, this is especially desira- 

 ble, as otherwise they will not be fully decomposed 

 without a larger addition both of water and acid. 



b. Or the acid and bones as above, may, after a 

 couple of days, bo mixed with a quantity of light, 

 friable soil, and laid up into a heap for seven or 

 eight weeks with occasional turning. The bones 

 thus heated, decompose and dry up, so as to be 

 ready for putting into the drills without farther pre- 

 paration. This method, however, requires more 

 acid, and it is not unusual in employing it, to take 

 equal weights of acid and bones. It may be, some 

 practical men, indeed, employ invariably equal 

 weights of acid and bones, while others are satisfied 

 by mixing the bones with one-third or even one- 

 fourth of their weight of acid. I would myself 

 employ not less than a half. 



c. Or equal weights of bones in the form of dust, 

 of boiling water and of acid* may be mixed to- 

 gether and occasionally stirred for a week or ten 

 days, and when the particles of bone have nearly 

 disappeared, from 50 to 100 times more water may 

 be added to the mixture, and the liquid thus diluted 

 may be applied by a water cart. If it is to be used 

 upon grass-land in the spring, or to young corn, it 

 will be safer to dilute it with 200 waters, but fifty 

 waters (by weight,) will be enough if it is to be 

 applied to turnip drills. A common watering cart 

 used for other liquid manures, will serve for the 

 former purpose — for applying it to the drills a very 

 ingenious addition of tubes to this cart has been 

 contrived by Mr. Wagstaff and employed by him 

 under the direction of the Duke of Richmond at 

 Gordon castle. 



This method of applying the bones in the liquid 

 form, is, no doubt the most perfect, but it is also 

 the most troublesome and expensive, and may not, 

 tlierefore, come so soon into general use, though it 

 may ultimately prove the most profitable. 



Instead of sulphuric acid, the muriatic acid or 

 spirits of salt, has been, indeed, was first, tried for 

 the dissolution of bones, but the former appears at 

 present, for several reasons, to be preferred. 



We will only add to the foregoing, that 

 a number of experiments with dissolved 

 bones were made by the Highland Society 

 of Scotland, the result of which were: — 



"]. That four, and in some cases, even 

 two bushels of dissolved bones, will produce 

 as good a crop of turnips as sixteen or 



* A gallon of water weighs lOlbs, a gallon of acid 17 or 

 18Ibs. 



