166 ON THE USE OF 



much fnrtlier tlian 40-?. expended in bones alone, so far as 

 the turnip-crop is concerned. 



These experiments, however, appear to have been made 

 with the addition of a very considerable quantity of water, 

 so as to apply the manure to the land in a liquid state, which, 

 ■without denjang- its superiority, is yet attended with such 

 difficulty, trouble, and inconvenience, that it is vain to ex- 

 ])ect that farmers g-enerally would incur it. The expense of 

 a proper cart for the aj)plication of this manure in a liquid 

 state is very considerable, and sufficient to prevent its 

 g'eneral adoption. And, althoug'h it was in this form that 

 the public were first made acquainted with its valuable pro- 

 perties, yet its g'eneral adoption must be attributed to the 

 additional discovery, that it can readily be applied in the 

 state of compost, by means of the common drill. Having* 

 directed my attention to the preparation and employment of 

 this valuable manure in the form of compost, I am in a 

 position to state, that by its means one-half the usual ex- 

 pense in the purchase of bones may be saved. 



V/e cannot, however, do better than take as our text, or 

 rather the heads of our sxibject, the points to which the 

 attention of competitors are drawn by the Council of the 

 Royal Agricultural Society of Eng-land, which are — 



1. State of bones. 



2. Proportion of acid in a given weig-ht of bones. 



3. Propoi'tion of water, if any, mixed with the acid. 



4. Mode of mixing- the bones with the acid, and of pre- 

 paring- the compost. 



5. Effect of various quantities applied in combination 

 or com}>arison with common bones and other known ma- 

 nures. 



1. First, then, the state of the bones — with reg-ard to 

 which I have merely to observe, that they should be as fine 

 as possible, but the ordinary state of bone-dust will answer 

 the purpose very well. The dust is decidedly preferable to 

 half- inch bones, for, whilst the increased weig-ht of the 

 former will compensate for its g-reater price, the points of 

 contact being- g-reatly increased by sub-division, the bones 

 are more rapidly and more perfectly acted on by the acid, 

 and recpiire, in fact, a less quantity both of that and of 

 water. 



We next come to the second and more important point. 



2. Tlie proportion of sulphuric or muriatic acid to a g'iven 

 weig-ht of bones. 



