BONES AND BONE-MANURKS 



BORASSUS 



FLABELLIFEH 



Tal Palm 



used in the Ahmodabftd match factory. Of ell readily available timbers it is 

 t nuitiil>l.< for (hut purpose. [Cf. Jone8, Select. Ind. PI., At. 

 iv., -2W : also Hardwicke, 1799, vi., 367; Taleef Shereef (Playfair, 

 ). ls:n. 'JS, !(:{, 157; Lisboa, Useful PI. Bomb., 1884, VI; Monier-Williams, 

 tism, 510 ; Ind. Med. Oat., March 1888 ; Morris, Cantor Lect., Joum. Soc. 

 S-pt. 'J7. 1895, 897 ; Biscoe, Lift Hyderabad Trees, 1895, 3 ; Kanny Lall 

 Indig. Drugs Ind., 1896, 48-9; Ind. For., Nov. 1896, 22, app., 60; Kew 

 Ju., ; Innes, Jungle Prod., 1896-7; Mukerji, Handbook Ind. Agri., 

 .{_'-; llunmm, Text. Fibre* Comm., 1902, 70-9; Cunningham, Plague* 

 Pleasures of Life in Beng., 1907, 182, 303-7 ; Hanausek, Micro. Tech. Prod. 

 inton mid Harber, transl.), 1907, 68, 368. 





D.E.P., 

 v., 171-2. 

 Bones. 



Value of some 

 Manures* 



Bone-meal. 



BONES AND BONE-CRUSHING MILLS: BONE- 

 [ANURES, etc. ; Voelcker, Improv. Ind. Agri., 113-8; Basu, Use of 

 Trade in Bones, Beng. ; Fuller, Use of Bones in Cent. Prov. ; O'Conor, 

 Trade Ind., 1901-2, 29-30 ; Leather, Manures and Manuring, Agri. 

 j., 1897, No. 8, 163-71 ; also Util. Bone-dust Pb., Rept. Dept. LandRec. 

 Agri. U. Prov., 1891-2, No. 15, 45-8 ; Mollison, Textbook Ind. Agri., i., 

 110-3. 



For some time the export of bones and bone-manures from India was much 

 plored by writers on Indian economy. The majority of the scientific in- 

 stigators whose publications have been enumerated above have, however, 

 ited out, first, that the Indian soils as a whole are not deficient in phosphates 

 lime ; second, that bones contain, in view of their cost, too small a proportion 

 nitrogen to justify their use ; third, that cereals are not so much benefited 

 bone-manures as by nitrogenous manures ; and fourth, that it is the roots 

 lich are not grown as field-crops in India that are most immediately and 

 sfully treated with bone. For these and many other reasons it has 

 en contended that to the Indian cultivator, as matters stand at present, 

 is perhaps more profitable to sell the bones found on his fields than 

 utilise them as manure. Mollison, however, observes that " The rayat 

 Id, if he took the trouble, collect in some districts quantities of bones, the 

 of which would be cartage and his own labour. He could grind the bones 

 powder . . . and by simple process of fermentation make the bones more 

 luble and, therefore, more quickly acting than in their natural condition." If 

 operations were conducted in the rayat's spare time and the value of his 

 JUT more or less discounted, I have no doubt that the bone-manure would 

 found as cheap as any other manure procurable. " Bone-meal has been 

 id specially useful with sugar-cane, and to some extent is used with both tea 



coffee." 



Mills. In all districts tapped by railways or navigable canals and rivers, bones 

 -y^tcmatically collected and conveyed to important centres, more especially 

 iport towns, where bone-crushing mills and bone-manure factories have been 

 kablished. In 1891 there were 13 such works that gave employment to 491 

 persons. Steadily these increased, arid in 1900 there were 18 works employing 

 991 persons. These are distributed as follows : Seven in Madras, 6 in Bombay, 

 in Sind, 2 in Bengal, and 1 in the United Provinces. Thus bone-meal and 

 iperphosphato are regularly manufactured and on a fairly large scale in India, 

 it as the local demand is limited the produce is mainly exported. It is not 

 ssible, however, to furnish separate returns for the traffic in raw bones as 

 stinct from the prepared bone-manures. In 1884-5 the exports were 18,383 tons, 

 and from that quantity they have steadily increased. Apparently they attained 

 their highest magnitude in 1900-1, when they stood at 112,051 tons, valued 

 at Rs. 58,41,916. For the years 1902-7 the figures were : 1902-3, 100,391 

 Ks. 54,97,967; 1903-4, 74,788 tons, Rs. 41,57,119; 1904-5, 68,203 tons, 

 Rs. 37,51,480 ; 1905-6, 87,552 tons, Rs. 49,78,778 ; 1906-7, 93,760 tons, 

 Rs. 55,45,241. 



BORASSUS FLABELLIFER, Linn. ; Fl Br. Ird., vi., 482 ; D.E.P., 



Gamble, Man. Ind. Timbs., 737 ; Pharmacog. Ind., iii., 519 ; Agri. Ledg., i- 495-604. 

 1894, No. 20 ; Brandis, Ind. Trees, 1906, 657 ; PALMED. The Palmyra Palmyra, 

 Palm, Brab-tree, tdl, tad, dral, panai-maram, pand, pane-mara, darakhte- 



169 



Trade In 

 Bones. 



Exports. 



