150 AX AMERICAN FARMER IX EXGLAXD. 



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 sweet- 

 er ; 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 improvement 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 was dressed on different sides equally with each 

 sort, and now, several years after, no difference has been observed 

 in their effect. A comparison must, of course, be made by meas- 

 ure, 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 dissolved 

 in sulphuric acid, being used as a top-dressing for pastures. 



I quote the following from the journal of the Royal Agricul- 

 tural Society, as a mark of deep significance to American farmers, 

 beyond its proof of the value of bones : " Before bones came 

 into use in this country, the farmers made a point of selecting a 

 hardy and inferior description of stock for their clay lands, farm- 

 ers finding that large, well-bred cows did not at all answer upon 



