68 



FARMERS' REGISTER 



[No. 2 



ahoDt jSSOO, and it has been rendered available 

 by Mr. Turner fur several order purposes, such 

 as ehafl-cuttinir, Ihrashinfj, &c., by which the ag- 

 gregale expense is nialerialiy lessened, and a 

 very considerable annual saving effected. 



For the last two years Mr, Turner has drilled 

 with his crushed bones, an equal quantity per 

 acre, of sheep-dung, collected for the express pur- 

 pose, at an expense of'Ild. per bushel, paid to the 

 collectors; this he prepares in the winter, by laying 

 the bone dust in alternate layers wiib the slieep 

 dung, and suffering thenn to remain fermentino; 

 some months until the turnip sowing. By this 

 plan, by the fermentation of the mass, the two 

 manures are thoroughly incorporated, and he con- 

 siders that thirty-five bushels of the mxture, are 

 fully equal in effect to twenty-five bushels of the 

 bones. So that, allowing 3s. 6d. per acre for the 

 expense of collecting the sheep dung, there will 

 be a clear saving of 12s. 6d. per acre m bones, 

 valuing these at 2s. |)er bushel. 



The mixed bones and sheep dung is invariably 

 drilled in with the turnip seed. 



The practical farmer will hardly need any bet- 

 ter testimony of the importnnt value of crushed 

 bones, than these extensive and long continued 

 experiments of Mr. Turner. 



They are not open to the common objection to 

 experimental attempts, that they are carried on in 

 far too limited a manner, and for much too short 

 a period, to enable the cultivator to form from 

 ihem a satisfactory conclusion; lor he has annu- 

 ally manured with them scores of acres of rurnip 

 land, and that too in seasons which ]iave afforded 

 him, from the adverse price of agricultural pro- 

 duce; but little encouragement to lay out money 

 on any fertilizer of a doubtful value. 



I earnestly, therefore, commend these important 

 experiments to the attention of the practical far- 

 mer, as being fraught with information ot the most 

 interesting nature, especially to those who have to 

 .contend with the poor, light, upland soils; lands 

 which are now with ditficulty retained in cultiva- 

 tion. 



In the year 1831, on a thin chalky soil, in the 

 neighborhood of Amesbury, in Wiltshire, Mr. De- 

 venish employed bone manure of the quality call- 

 ed "fine," drilled at the rate of twenty-four bush- 

 els per acre, with the turnip seed, on a portion of 

 a field of about ten acres. 



Part of the same field was manured with spit 

 dung, at the rate of about twenty tons per acre, 

 and another portion of ihe same field remained 

 without any manure. 



The Swedish turnips produced on the boned 

 soil, were of four times the value of those grown 

 upon the land manured with spit manure. Those 

 grown on the soil without any manure, were 

 deemed scarcely worth hoeing. 



Bone manure presents to the cottager or culti- 

 vator of small plots of poor ground, as under the 

 allotment system, a ready and cheap mode of per- 

 manently improving his land. 



It would be well perhaps, in some instances, if 

 the managers under such an excellent system, 

 were to apply the manure for the holder, and that 

 too, if they even thought it necessary in conse- 

 quence, to add to the amount of the rent. 



As a manure for plantations of trees, I am not 

 aware of any experiments with bones; I should 

 however, strongly recommend their use for orna- 



mental plots; but in a roughly broken state. A 

 considerable quantity of phosphaie of lime is con- 

 tained in all timber trees. There is no manure of 

 a mixed animal and vegetable nature, which re- 

 mains so long m the soil as bones. 



As a manure tor flower roots, the turning and 

 clippings of bones, the refuse of the Birmingham 

 cutlers, have long been employed with the best 

 results by my friend Mauud of Bromsgrove, the 

 talented author of 'The Botanic Garden.' 



Not only does he find their use increase the lux- 

 uriance ot' the plant, and the beauty of its co- 

 lors, but there is in llie application ol' this powder 

 an elegance and cleanliness which cannot fail of 

 recommending its introduction into the flower gar- 

 den, and the conservatory. 



Such have been some of the successlul uses to 

 which bones have been employed. The turnip 

 crop has been the more generally experimented | 



upon from the general difficulty of finding lor this 

 invaluabia crop a sufficient supply of manure. 



And with regard to other crops, the care and la- 

 bor required fur trying with sufficient accuracy a 

 comparative agricultural experiment, must account 

 lor many discordant statements. Upon grass land, 

 however, it has been employed with very gene- 

 ral success; but for the turnip, on poor light soils, 

 it seems of the greatest and most undoubted value. 

 It not only promotes the luxuriance of the plant; but 

 there is a veiy great probability that the gaseous 

 matters evolved by the crushed and putrifying 

 bone, and the vigor it imparts to the crop, aflbrd 

 the young turnip plants very considerable protec- 

 tion Irom the ravaoes of the fly; at least many 

 farmers consider this as one of its valuable pro- 

 perties. 



The complete manner in which the roots of the 

 young turnips envelope the pieces of crushed bono 

 with which they are drilled, shows the attractive 

 nature of this manure, and how nourishing it is to 

 the turnip. 



I cannot conclude these observations without 

 professing my readiness to assist in any experi- 

 ments, and answer any questions vvliich may pro- 

 mote a cause now proceeding so successfully. 

 The consumption of bones has already rendered 

 it necessary to import them fi-om Ibreiirn countries; 

 and it yet remains to be proved, whether the fos- 

 sil phosphate of lime will not be nearly as power- 

 ful a fertilizer as the crushed or powdered bones 

 usually emploj-ed. 



General directions. — The crushed hones have 

 been invariably found more immediately benefi- 

 cial as a fertilizer, when suffered to remain previ- 

 ously for some weeks, mixed with earth in fieaps, 

 exposed to the action of the atmosphere. By be- 

 ing thus fermented and dissolved, they are neces- 

 sarily more speedily serviceable as food to the 

 plants to which they are applied; and this obser- _ 

 vation more especially relates to the oat, barley, ■ 

 and other spring corn, since these do not remain * 

 on the ground for so long a period as other agri- 

 cultural crops. The proportion is fifty bushels of 

 bones, with five loads of earth or clay; or forty 

 bushels to five loads of common dung. 



For wheat and pasture lands, the previous fer- 

 mentation of the bones is, for this season, not so 

 essential to the production of immediate benefit. 



It is impossible to give any general directions 

 for the quantity of bones to be applied per acre, 

 since soil, situation, and climate, must all be taken 

 into the farmer's consideration. 



