182 ON MANURES, ETC. 



Tlie constant withdrawal of tlie pliospliate of lime from 

 pastures by hay and by live stock, and the total neglect of 

 any means of returning- a supply to the soil, are well worthy 

 of the farmer's attention. We have already given ^ the 

 analysis of rye-grass, in which it exists in very considerable 

 proportions : and as regards live stock, " If we consider," 

 says Professor Johnston,^ " that an animal of 20 to 25 stone 

 weight contains about 50 lb. of bone, the important consti- 

 tuents of which it derives from the soil, it will be easily 

 understood how the rearing of growing stock for successive 

 generations should impoverish the soil of the materials of 

 bones, and how the application of bones as a manure should 

 increase its productiveness in those grasses from which the 

 animal derives the materials of which its bones are com- 

 posed." 



The experiments which we have made Avith crushed 

 bones, and with gypsum, as a top-dressing for old, worn out 

 pasturage, are confirmed by those of Mr. Fleming, of 

 Barochan, in Renfrewshire, who says, ^ " I have had very 

 satisfactory results from top-dressing meadows and grass on 

 my new moor property, with dissolved bones, and guano, and 

 salt. The produce has been doubled at the trilling expense 

 of 16.*f. per acre." 



Mr. Stewart, of Hillside, in Dumfriesshire, adds, when 

 speaking of some experiment on similar land with bones 

 and lime, " The effect is mostly in favour of the bones, 

 both in the quantity and in the quality of the pasture 

 and hay. It is the inferior varieties of guano (pro- 

 vided the price is commensurate with the small amount of 

 the salts of ammonia, and the large proportion of water 

 they contain) that is the best adapted for those pasture 

 lands that require an additional supply of the phosphate of 

 lime. 



Most of those of commerce have been analyzed by Pro- 

 fessor J. F. Johnston.^ He found in these, per cent. — 



Farmer's Almanac, 1847, p. 25. 

 Trans. High, Soc, p. 313. 

 Ibid. p. 314. 

 Aff, Gaz., vol. iii. p. 244. 



