174 AN AMERICAN FARMER IN ENGLAND. 



farm-yard dung every two years, probably at the rate of 

 thirty cubic yards to an acre. There seems to be no doubt at 

 all that land to which inch bones were applied ten years ago 

 are yet much the better for it. They are usually applied in 

 April, and the ground is lightly pastured, or perhaps not at all 

 until the following year. The effect, the farmers say, is not 

 merely to make the growth stronger, but to make it sweeter ; 

 the cattle will even eat the weeds which before they would 

 not taste of. However, in poor land especially, it is found 

 to encourage the growth of the more valuable grasses more 

 than that of the weeds, so that the latter are crowded out, and 

 a clean, thick, close turf is formed. If the ground has been 

 drained, all these improvements are much accelerated and 

 increased. Upon newly laid down lands, however, the effect 

 is not so great ; it is especially on old pastures (from which 

 the extraction of the phosphates in the milk has been going 

 on for ages sometimes, uninterruptedly) that the improve 

 ment is most magical. The productive value of such lands 

 is very frequently known to have been doubled by the first 

 dressing of bones. 



Both boiled and raw bones are used, and though there is 

 a general belief that the latter are more valuable, I do not 

 hear of any experience that has shown it ; on the contrary, 

 I am told of one field which w r as dressed on different sides 

 equally with each sort, and now, several years after, no dif 

 ference has been observed in their effect. A comparison 

 must, of course, be made by measure, as boiled bones are 

 generally bought wet, and overweigh equal bulks of raw about 

 25 per cent. Dry bone-dust weighs from 45 to 50 Ibs. to a 

 bushel. 



I have not heard of super-phosphate of lime, or bones dis 

 solved in sulphuric acid, being used as a top-dressing for pas- 

 lures. 



