92 



^EW-YORK STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



REVIEW. 



Transactiok^ of the New- York State Agri- 

 cultural Society — with an abstract of the 

 Proceedings of the County Agricultural Societien. 

 Vol. vii, 1847. [ 1 vol., 8vo., 799 pages.] 

 This is a most excellent volume, replete 

 with valuable practical essays, reports of 

 successful experiments, details of skilful 

 farming operations, agricultural addresses, 

 &c., besides the report of the proceedings of 

 the state society. 



Altogether, it is one of the most valuable 

 contributions to scientific and practical ag- 

 riculture that has been produced in the 

 United States; and its general distribution 

 among the people cannot fail to have a most 

 beneficial effect. 



After some familiarity with the difficulty 

 of drawing out and making public the most 

 valuable information, viz., that possessed 

 by the soundest practical and scientific 

 men in the country, we feel bound to say 

 that we think Mr. Johnson, the present 

 able secretary of the society, within whose 

 province this volume especially falls, has 

 performed his duty most wisely and skil- 

 fully. We are, indeed, willing to go much 

 farther, and say that Mr. Johnson's exer- 

 tions have effected more for the cause of 

 agriculture, in this and the previous vols, of 

 Transactions, than all the other labors of 

 the society put together, have done in the 

 same time. Those who know how much 

 the importance and influence of a society 

 like this depends on the intelligence and 

 energy of one, two or three of its leading 

 officers, — men who must be earnestly de- 

 voted to the cause, will rank as highly as 

 ourselves the invaluable services of the pre- 

 sent secretary of the state society. 



Among the most valuable articles, we 

 notice one by Professor Johnston, of Eng- 



land, " On the Economical Use of Bones as 

 a Manure^ and on their Solutio7i in SulphU' 

 ric Acidy 



Our horticultural readers are, perhaps, 

 even more fully aware than most farmers 

 of the value of bones. Phosphate of lime 

 is so essential an organic constituent in the 

 fear, and some other fruit trees, that no 

 good orchard ist or gardener will henceforth 

 be guilty of the extravagance of wasting 

 bones. 



The difficulty, however, hitherto experi- 

 enced by many persons, has been to bring 

 the bones, easily collected upon every farm 

 and about every slaughter-house, to a fit 

 condition for applying to the land. Bone 

 mills are only to be found here and there ; 

 and in some parts of the country, the cost 

 of transportation of bone-dust has been so 

 considerable as to put a stop to its use. 

 Fortunately,this difficulty has been overcome 

 lately by a cheap, simple, and rapid mode 

 of dissolving bones by sulphuric acid, now 

 largely employed by English agriculturists. 

 The mode of effecting this is so important 

 to nine-tenths of our readers, that we ex- 

 tract the formula from Professor Johnston's 

 essay: 



§ 6. Methods adopted for Increasing the sensible 

 Effect of Bones. 



Without referring much to the effect which bones 

 might theoretically be expected to produce, it has 

 been observed by practical men that they may be 

 made to act more quickly and more beneficially by 

 the adoption of certain previous precautions, such 

 as, — 



1. Reducing them to fine powder. I have already 

 alluded to the fact ascertained by experience, that 

 the finer the powder, the more immediate and the 

 more sensible the effect of bones. But practicaS 

 men were afraid to venture too far in diminishing 

 the weight of manure, added to tiie soil. Bulk was 

 considered to enter as an element into the fertilizing 

 capabilities of any substance. Many leases evea 

 prohibit the addition of less than 16 or 20 bushels of 

 bones, when used alone in raising turnips. Bal 



