410 



FARMERS' REGISTER— THE INVISIBLE ANIMAL WORLD 



Sir Charles Thockmorton, were half manured 

 with bones and half with dung. The first gave 

 the earliest and best turnips; the barley v.V.'iJn mi- 

 lowed yielded fiv«- bushels the acre more than the 

 dunged part, and the clover was also heavier upon 

 the boned part. 



Ca])L. Ogilvic applied bone dust at the rate of 15 

 to 20 bushels the acre, to a light sandy loam, and 

 after the experience of five years upon a series of 

 trials, he Ibund all the successive crops of turnips, 

 barley, and grass, decidedly sa[)erior to those 

 which had been previously produced by other ma- 

 nure. 



Twenty bushels of bone dust, at 2s. 6d. would 

 be 50s.; 20 loads of manure at 10s., the price 

 given in the statements, would amount to 200s., 

 which shows a saving of three-fourths in ma- 

 nuring an acre with those substances, at the as- 

 sumed prices, and m the assumed quantities. 



The two tbllowing cases, taken fi-om the Don- 

 caster report, are worthy particular notice. 



1. "On a field, part of which was boned 40 

 years ago, the crojjs were, on that part, duriiig fif- 

 teen orsixteen succeeding years, visibly better 

 than the remainder, although the land was all of 

 the same quality, and the part not boned v/as ma- 

 nured with barn-yard dung. 



2. " In another case, about three acres of light 

 sandy land were dressed, in 1814, with 150 bushels 

 of bones per acre; since which time the land is 

 said never to have tbrgotten it, but is nearly as 

 good again as the other part, fiirmed precisely in 

 the same way, with the exception of the one ap- 

 plication of bones." 



As to the size in which bones are most profita- 

 bly applied, one of the Doncaster Association re- 

 jnarks — "That il" he meant to till for early profit, 

 and if he wished to keep his land in good heart, 

 he would use half inch bones; and, in breaking 

 these, he should prefer some remaining considera- 

 bly larger: that by using bones of a large size 

 with dust in them, there must be sufficient of the 

 small particles of the dusi to set the turnip crop 

 forward, and sufficient of the large particles of the 

 bone left to maintain the land in good condition for 

 the subsequent crop. 



Bones are found on analysis to contain, in 100 

 parts, 40 of earthy and saline matter, 40 of cartil- 

 age and jelly, and 20 of fatty matter. The sofi 

 parts thus form, in the best bone about sixty, and 

 upon an average about fifty per cent, which are al- 

 most entirely constituted of the same elements as 

 plants, and all ol" them, sooner or later, Habletobe 

 dissolved and absorbed by the roots. 



Bones should undergo a partial lermenlation be- 

 fore they are applied, in order to produce the best 

 immediate effect. This is done by mixing them 

 with yard manure, or with manure and earth. 

 They have also been mixed and applied with coal 

 ashes with effect and economy. 



The Doncaster Agricultural Association, after 

 long experience in the use of bones, have publish- 

 ed rules for its application, from which it ap- 

 pears, 



That on dry sands, limestone, chalk, light 

 Icams, and peat, bones are a very highly valuable 

 manure. 



That they may be applied to grass with great 

 good effect. 



That on arable lands they may be laid on fallow 



for turnips, or used for any of the subsequent 

 crops. 



Thr.t the best method of using them, when 

 broadcast, is previously to mix them in a compost 

 with earth, dung, or othei' manures, and let them 

 lie to ferment. 



That if used alone they may be either drilled in 

 with the seed or used broadcast. 



That bones Avhich have undergone the process 

 of fermentation are decidedly superior (in their 

 immediate efiects) to those which have not done 

 so. 



That the quantity should be about 20 bushels of 

 d,Vist, or 40 bushels of large, increasing the quanti- 

 ty if the land be impoverished. 



That upon clays and heavy loams, it does not 

 yet appear that bones will answer. [_See No. 55 

 l'''arm(irs Series.'] 



And where, it will be asked, arc we to obtain 

 bones to enrich our lands? Every farmer, we ad- 

 mit, cannot obtain them; but those who are located 

 in the neighborhood of villages and cities may ob- 

 tain a considerable supply. There are two bone 

 mills already established on Long Island, and it is 

 understood the proprietors find a ready market for 

 all they can crush. During the last year we pur- 

 chased sixty horse-cart loads from one man. We 

 had them crushed in a jilaster mill; and when 

 about to use them, mixed them with house ashes, 

 and wet the whole plentifully with water. In 48 

 hours, fermentation having sufficiently progressed, 

 they were applied to turnips, barley and corn; and 

 though we cannot yet speak of their ultimate be- 

 nefits, they so far confirm the highest opinion en- 

 tertained of their utility. 



We have had some years experience in the use 

 of horn shavings and horn piths, which are pro- 

 cured from the comb manufactories. The first, oi' 

 which we have used many hundred bushels, are 

 equal, if not superior, to bone dust. The piths are 

 cut into pieces, upon a block, and buried with the 

 plough. Of these we used 15 loads last spring, 

 upon corn ground, and we think we have not seen 

 a finer crop than is now growing tliere. 



From Chambers's Edinburgh Journal. 

 THE INVISIBLE ANIMAL, WORLD. 



In whatever direction we turn our eyes, we every 

 where see around us tlie most surprisinrr indica- 

 tions of universality of life. The principal of vital- 

 ity seems to be scattered with the utmost i/vodic^ai- 

 ity over and throughout the whole of the inanimate 

 creation. On the earth, in the air, in the rivers 

 and seas, in all places and in all times, we find 

 life. And in what an astonishino^ variety of forms 

 and combinations! Reckon up all the varieties of 

 animated creatures from a man to a midge, from a 

 whale to a herring, from an albatross to a hum- 

 ming bird; take the human, the brute, the bird, 

 the reptile, the fish, and the insect creation, and 

 compute the supposable number of individuals in 

 each; and after all that we can count, all that we 

 can allow to be in existence, we are yet but be- 

 ginning to begin to sum up the amount of crea- 

 tures whom the Creator in his almio-hty power has 

 endowed with that incomprehensible principle — 

 life. The deeper we examine, the more lofiy are 

 our conceptions of this infinitude of living crea- 

 tures. Astronomers, by means of their telescopes, 

 have told us of the bodies which dot the firma- 



