FARMERS' REGISTER— VALUE OF BONE MANURE. 



319 



The lenjislature of the state of Tennessee, has 

 appointed Dr. G. Troost, a distinguished natura- 

 list, geologist ol the state. He has ah'eady made 

 a report in part, containing a geological survey of 

 Da\idson county. 



]Mr. G. W. Featherstonhaugh is at present en- 

 gaged under the authority of the United States 

 government, in investigating the geology and 

 jnineralogy of Arkansas territory. It is expected 

 that he will report to congress in February next. 



Mr. S. G. Clemson, who has recently returned 

 from Europe, after a long and laithful apprentice- 

 shi]) in the school of mines at Paris, has accepted 

 the a])pointment of the Geological Society of 

 Pennsylvania, to visit and report on the gold re- 

 gion recently discovered in Yt)rk county, Pa. 



I'he legislature of INIaryland have appointed 

 Prolcssor Ducatel and Mr. Anderson, of Balti- 

 more, to make a geological and topographical sur- 

 vey of that state. 



The Geological Society of Pennsylvania, have 

 it in contemplation to appoint a committee of their 

 members to make a geological survey of Schuyl- 

 kill county for which purpose part of the necessa- 

 ry funds have already been subscribed. 



[To the author of the following Report, the result 

 of five years practical experience, the thanks of 

 the Society and the honorary Silver Medal were 

 voted by the Directors.] 



RKPORT ON THE VAJ.UE OF BONE-MANURE, 

 IN COMPARISON WITH ORDINARY FARM- 

 YARD MANURE. 



By the Honorable Captain W. Ogilvy, Airlie Cas- 

 tle. 



From the Prize Essays and Transactions of the Highland Socie- 

 ty of (Scotland. 



Mr. Watson of Keilor introduced the use of 

 bone-manure into Strathmore, having seen it used 

 in England. I am not certain in Avhat year he 

 began to make experiments with it, or to employ it 

 extensively, but I remember well that the great 

 deficiency of farm-yard dung in 1827 (consequent 

 on the almost total failure oi' the crop of the pre- 

 vious year) first induced me to try lour acres of 

 turnip Avithout other manure, sown with 15 hush- 

 els of bone-dust per acre, \vhich I obtained from 

 Mr. Watson: it cost 3s. per bushel, or £2 5s. per 

 acre. The crop of turniji on these four acres was 

 at leai;t equal to the rest raised with farm-yard 

 manure; but as the whole of the turnips were 

 pulled, and the land received some dung before 

 the succeeding crop, much stress cannot be laid 

 on the circumstance of the following white crop 

 and grass being good. 



Next year, 1828, encouraged by the former suc- 

 cessful experiment, eight acres were sown with 

 turnip, solely with bone-dust; the soil a light, san- 

 dy loam; the subsoil gravely and sand, coming in 

 some places nearly to the surface, which is very 

 irregular, but in general has a south exposure. 

 This field had been broken up with a croj) of oats 

 in 1827, after having been depastured six years 

 principally by sheep. The quantity of Ijone-dust 

 mven was 20 bushels per acre, and cost 2s. 6d. per 

 bushel, or £2 10s. per acre. The turniji croji 

 was so heav}-, that, notwithstanding the very light 

 nature of the soil, it was judged ad\'isable to pull 

 one-third for the feeding cattle, two drills pulled. 



and four left to be eaten on the ground by sheep. 

 The following year, 1829, these eight acres were 

 sown with barley and grass-seeds, and the ])roduce 

 was 57 bolls 1 bushel, or 7 bolls 1 bushel nearly, 

 per acre, of grain, equal in quality to the best in 

 the Dundee market, both in weight and color. Next 

 year, a fair crop of hay for that description of land 

 was cut, about 150 stones an acre; and though I 

 am now convinced that the field should rather 

 have been depastured the first year, yet the pas- 

 ture was better than it had ever been known be- 

 fore for the two following seasons, 1831 and 1832. 

 It is worthy of remark, as a proof of the efficacy 

 of the bone-manure, that in a small angle of this 

 field, in which I had permitted a cottager to plant 

 potatoes, well dunged, and which, after their re- 

 moval, was included in one of the flakings of 

 sheep, and had (one might have supposed) there- 

 by had at least equal advantage with the adjacent 

 bone-dust turnip-land, both the barley and grass 

 crops were evidently inferior, and this continued to 

 be observable until the field was again ploughed 

 up. A very bulkj^ crop of oats has been reaped 

 this season, probably upwards of eight bolls per 

 acre, but no part of it is yet thrashed. 



Having detailed Avhat may be considered a fair 

 experiment during the whole rotation of the above 

 eight acres, I may add, that turnip raised with 

 bone manure, and fed off with sheep, hae now be- 

 come a regular part, of the system on this farm; 

 15, 20, and, last year 25 acres Averc fed off', and 

 invariable Avith the same favorable results, AAdth 

 the prospect oi' being able to adopt a fiA-e-shifl 

 rotation, and to continue it Avithout injury to the 

 land. Every person in the least acquainted with 

 the management of a farm, of Avhicli a consider- 

 able proportion consists of light, dry, sandy loam, 

 at a distance from toAvn-manure, must be aAA-are of 

 the importance of this, from knoAving the ex- 

 pense at Avhich such land Avas fbrmerlj' kept in a 

 fair state of cultivation; indeed, the prices of corn 

 for some years past aa^ouUI not Avarrant the neces- 

 sary outlay, and large tracts of land, capable of 

 producing barley little inferior to that of Norfolk, 

 must speedily have been converted into sheep pas- 

 ture, but lor the introduction of bone manure. 



Note. — For the last four years, 25 bushels of 

 bone-dust haA'c been given to the acre: the price 

 this year Avas 3s. per bushel, or £2 15s. per acre. 



[The foregoing article places in a striking point of 

 view, the value of a kind of manure which is entirely 

 neglected in Virginia, and used no where (we believe) 

 in the United States, except near the city of New 

 York, and there to a very limited extent. Two indi- 

 viduals are there engaged in pulveiising bones for sale 

 — but though the price of the prepared article is much 

 lower than in England, there is not sufficient demand 

 for what the mills have pounded, and a large quantity 

 recently was about to be exported to England for a 

 market. 



Many farmers Avonld try tiie use of bones if they 

 could be pounded by their own laborers: but this can- 

 not be done (as yet) with economy, and the owners 

 of mills in and near our towns, have not thought of 

 entering into the business. Yet there can be no doubt 

 of the profit to all the parties, if some one having pro- 

 per facilities for procunusthe bones insufficient quan- 



