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Mr. Peck. — Will Mr. Beadle be kind enough to give the quantity of ingredients 

 necessary ] 



Mr. Beadle. — Mr. Gilchrist did not give me any particular quantity ; he just said 

 to put enough gypsum in with the bones to cover them, and then pour in your solution 

 of potash, enough to thoroughly wet it. The action of the potash on the bones would 

 dissolve them. 



Mr. Carr. — Has anyone tried diluted sulphuric acid 1 



Mr. Beadle. — Yes, diluted sulphuric acid will dissolve bones. 



Mr. Drury. — I think if an experiment were made by some person with the different 

 manufacturers of artificial manures, applying them on the same soil and under the same 

 conditions, it would be more satisfactory than to have difi^erent persons trying them under 

 diflferent conditions on different kinds of soil. We are all aware that with common land 

 plaster different results will be produced on different kinds of soil. I am not so sure as 

 the Secretary seems to be that the Guelph superphosphates is a fraud. These high priced 

 manures are very often a fraud, I think ; but I am not satisfied that an experiment which 

 is conducted without due regard to the details should be taken as conclusive. My experi- 

 ence in this matter has led me to think there is something behind all this divei'sity in 

 results that we have not got at yet — in the use of these artificial manures especially. I 

 know perfectly well that in growing clover some years the investment of money in land 

 plaster is a good one and yields a very fair return ; and then other years it is used and 

 no result is produced at all. 



Mr. Wright. — Several of our customers wanted us this spring to bring in some 

 superphosphate, and we brought some from Brockville and sold to them, and as yet I have 

 not found one of them who has observed any benefit from it. I have some two or three 

 boys in the village to whom I give twenty-five cents for every barrel of bones they bring 

 to me. I put these bones in barrels and cover them with water and ashes, and it is not 

 long before they are perfectly eaten up by the ashes. In that way I get splendid manure 

 — just the thing for my roots and small fruits. 



A Member. — Tell us how you apply it for melons. 



Mr. Wright. — I put in the seed first, and then cover it with muck, and then put 

 on the bone dust. I keep the bones over from one season to another — about nine 

 months. 



Mr. Bucke. — The Boston phosphates are not nearly so good as the Canadian 

 phosphates. They mix our Canadian phosphates with their best phosphates. There is 

 no better phosphate anywhere than there is in Canada. 



Mr. Saunders. — I think the main objection to the Guelph phosphate is that it has 

 too much sand in it. I was one of the judges on this subject at London ; and I put 

 a magnifying glass to that phosphate and could make out the grains of silica in it. I 

 asked the man how the sand got in it, and he could not tell me. He said his boss could ; 

 but I never got any explanation. 



Mr. Arnold. — I am inclined to think thei-e is something in these phosphate mines. 

 I noticed Mr. Brown, the manager of the Guelph farm, speaks in one of his reports very 

 highly of these Brockville phosphates ; but he has not a word to say in favour of Guelph so 

 far. I fancy he discovered the sand as well as the rest of them. There is a great effort 

 made by these Brockville people to introduce their phosphate, and they sell it in our 

 locality at five dollars a barrel. I put bones in my manure heap with ashes above and 

 below them, and I found in the course of a few weeks that it was a very nice paste. I 

 thought it was a very nice manure ; but I could not say what the results were. 



Mr. Drury. — There is a source of manure that I think is neglected by our farmers 

 to a great extent throughout the country, and that is a cistern near the barnyard to 

 receive the drainings from the manure pile. I noticed when in England that every well 

 r^ulated farm had such a cistern. The contents are taken out regularly, and by an 

 arrangement similar to what is on a watering cart is sprinkled over the fields. I have 

 used such a cistern, and I find the best results from it. During the last two years I had 

 a very good opportunity of observing the way this waste was going on, having seen some 

 of the best farms throughout the western part of this Province ; and I noticed only two 

 farms where there was provision made for avoiding it. I believe that if we collected this 



