CHAPTER IX. 



BONES, SUPERPHOSPHATE OF LIME, AND ITS PREPARATION. 



299. Bones have been already partially adverted to 

 (233) ; their use in farming has been long l^nown and widely 

 adopted in England and in Europe, and is beginning to be 

 understood and valued in the older portions of the United 

 States. 



Bones are the only available home source of phosphate of 

 lime. Next to guano, which owes a large portion, and 

 sometimes all of its value, to phosphate of lime, bones enter 

 largely into the composition of the artificial manure powders 

 of commerce. The worth and employment of bones in 

 farming demands an extended notice, and is now, for the first 

 time, introduced into the fourth edition of the Muck Manual. 

 It is one of those topics to which allusion is made at the 

 close of the preceding section (298). 



300. Bones consist of an organic or animal part, which 

 forms about ^, and of an inorganic or mineral part, chiefly 

 phosphate of lime, which forms f of bone. As remarked 

 (217), gelatine or glue is derived from certain animal tis- 

 sues, tendons, ligaments, gristle and bones, so, under the 

 name of gelatine, it will be convenient to denominate the 

 animal part of bones. It is under the form of gelatine that 

 the bony tissue is extracted. 



301. Bones force and quicken vegetation, or develop and 

 form seed. 



C261) 



