iSSS] 



F A R M E R S' R E (; I s r j: R . 



67 



I. On what descriplion of soil is bone-dust em- 

 ployed vviiii tl\e greatest advantage? On light 

 dry soils. 



II. Theqtiantity per acre? From twenty to 

 tvventv-five hushelt?. 



III." How long has its efi'ects been observed to 

 last? This question requires a n)ore lentrihened 

 reply. The good etiects of bones as a manure, 

 have been acknowledged by many agricultiirisis 

 for a number of yearsf but as tarmers, generally 

 speakiiiii, are men who are not K)nd of trouble, 

 and as there was ffreat dilTicuIty in breaking bones 

 in sutfii-ionily sruall pieces, to prevent doirs, &c. 

 from runniiiif away with them, we can only in a 

 few instance trace'out their good ell'ecr. There is 

 a farmer in the neighborhood of Watford, who 

 dressed his land with lohnle bones, some twenty 

 years since, (at a period when you could obtain 

 them fiom London for letchinir)" and he declares 

 I hat to this day, to use his own expression, "ihe 

 land has never Ibrgotten them." Although the 

 first season or so he found but little benefit; this I 

 attribute to the bones being so large, the (jroiuid 

 could not so soon act upon them. The bone dtisi 

 is supposed to last but one season; the larger sizes 

 of hall-inch and inch, are supposed two or three 

 years, and are always seen to most advantage 

 after the first season. 



IV. What is the expense? The dust is 2s. Sd. 

 per bushel— the half-inch 2s. — the inch Is. 9d. 



V. What is the season, and on what crops is it 

 generall}' applied? The turnip season. Bone 

 manure shows itself to more advantatje on this 

 crop than on any other. Itis drilled with a drill 

 made on purpose, with the turnip seed: the period 

 is from May lo July. Bone dust is also used with 

 great advantage on grass lands sown broad-cast. 



In the valuable and long-continued experiments 

 of Mr. Robert Turner, of Tring, in Hertfirdshire, 

 the use of bone manure has been most decidedly 

 successful. 



The soil on which these experiments were made, 

 hitherto a common, producing only furze, is san- 

 dv, with a substratum of clay, and then chalk. 

 He began the use of bone manure in 1831, on this 

 land, and has continued its employment tor the last 

 four years on a ver}' bold scale, and with unvaried 

 success. The quantity generally applied was from 

 twenty-lour to thirty bushels per acre, of the des- 

 cription of halt-inch and dust, and the bones were 

 invariably ap[)l;ed to the turnip crop. 



The bones are drilled with the seed at the dis- 

 tance of eighteen inches, and the turnips are al- 

 waj's horse-hoed. 



The 3'ear 1831 was a very good season (()r this 

 crop generally. The turnips manured with bone 

 dust, like most others in the district, were very lux- 

 uriant. About 2,000 bushels of bone manure be- 

 ing this year employed by Mr. Turner. 



In 1832, the turnips were in general a very bad 

 plant, the fly committing general devastation. 

 Many cultivators in the nei<T:hborhood of Tring, 

 unsuccessfully sowed four or five times. 



On the turnip land of Mr. Turner, seventy-four 

 acres were manured with bones. The effect, with 

 the exception of the very last sown Conr acres, 

 was again most excellent; the crop beinii very 

 heavy, and that two on land now first cultivated: 

 and there was in no case any necessity to repeat 

 the sowinij. The turnips were a much better 

 crop than in 1831. 



Fn 1833, the turnip crops in the neighborhood 

 of Tring, were a very partial crop. 



On the farm of Mr. Turner, about fifty acres 

 were manured with bones. The effect, with the 

 exception of some of the last sown turnips, wiis 

 very satisfactory; the crop very heavy. 



These experiments the cultivator will deem of 

 the very fiist importance; the soil was not ma- 

 nured with any other fertilizer, except bones; and 

 in drilliiifl; every now and then, for the drill's 

 breadth, the boties were omittel. 



On these breadths of laud not boned, the failure 

 of the turnips was general and complete; they 

 veirelated it is true, and came up; but they were 

 wretchedly small, and of no use whatever. 



The turnips being fed off, and the sheep folded 

 on the soil, without any distinction being made 

 between boned and unboned land, the compara- 

 tive experiments upon the succeeding crop were 

 rendered uncertain. 



In 1834, Mr. Turner boned about eighty acres 

 of turnips with the best success, and with the 

 exception of some destroyed by the wire worm, 

 had a very excellent crop. 



In 1835, on nearly an equal extent of land, not- 

 withstanding the extreme dryness of the season, 

 ulr. Turner had again on his turnips manured with 

 h^ues, a very excellent plant, and never did this 

 crop promise better than thisse-tson, on the lands 

 of Tring. 



The caterpillars which devastated the chalk dis- 

 tricts of England, did not, however, omit this pa- 

 rish; their ravages were dreadliil and complete. 



And had not Mr. Turner made a most success- 

 ful attack upon them by a detachment of six hun- 

 dred and fii'ty ducks, procured especially for this 

 purpose, who devoured the black cater|)il!ars with 

 irreat voracit}', his turnip crop would have been ut- 

 terly destroyed. By their industry, .however, 

 twenty-five acres of turnips were cleared of the 

 vermin, and saved from destruction. 



At smother f^irni held by the same gentleman, 

 at Ellesboroush, by the assistance of the same 

 ducks, who were transported there in carts for that 

 expre.--s purpose, saved about eight or nine acre.s 

 of turnips from the caterpillars; so that there is no 

 lonbt of the importance of the services rendered by 

 ihese birds. He informs me that he found it ne- 

 (••essarv to give them a quantity of corn while they 

 were thus employd in cleaning the turnips. 



The soil of the Ellesborough farm, on which 

 the bones were tried lor the first time in 1835, 

 with coniplete success, is called white land, and 

 was in a very poor state of cultivation. The ex- 

 neriment was entirely successful, and the turnips 

 [iromised to be very good indeed: those that were 

 saved from the caterpillars, being for the season 

 very excellent. 



This soil, called vrhite by the farmars, is pro- 

 bably a mixture of clay and sand; it becoiTies 

 very dry and loose in dry weather, but is described 

 as "sticky" in wet periods. 



Mr. Turner possesses a capital bone mill, work- 

 ed by fimr horses, in which he crushes all the 

 bones employed in his fi\rm. He pays for the 

 foarse 2L 15s. per ton, and fetches them filteen 

 miles; a ton of bones producincj of half-inch and 

 lust about thirty to thirty-four bushels of bone 

 manure. 



The cost of the niill, with the substantial shed 

 which covers the machinery, horse-path, &c. was 



