farmer's miscellany. 311 



animal, that is now thrown out to be a nuisance in our streets ; and 

 how much do you find ? Why enough to make your scanty bit of 

 ground a productive farm, compared with the desert it is now. It 

 wants but a Httle economy and prudence to save all these, and 

 making them into a compost even with a portion of the soil itself in 

 some small corner, to make your gardens what they ought to be ; 

 and where now you grow vegetables which you can hardly find 

 when you want them, you might raise as good as any one. 



Bones are a very powerful fertilizer ; but like the other parts of 

 animals, are apt to be entirely wasted, in this country. The English 

 can send over to this country, and pay a high price for them, and, 

 after all the expense, make them profitable; but our farmers have 

 not opened their eyes yet to their own interest, or they would not 

 suffer this to be done. All that is necessary to prepare them for use, 

 is to grind them or break them into small pieces, when they may be 

 applied directly to the crop, or mixed with the compost heap till de- 

 composition has commenced. They are sometimes applied whole 

 about the roots of trees and vines, and with marked effect. 



Recent bones contain a considerable quantity of animal matter, 

 which is slowly taken from them by the action of the air and water. 

 The benefit derived from these, must be ascribed to this as well as 

 the earthy salts which constitute by far the greater part of them. 

 But when bones are burned, the organic part is entirely consumed ; 

 and when applied in this way, the phosphate of lime contained, is 

 probably the most efficient substance. 



But in the liquid excrements of animals, we have a manure of no 

 little value ; indeed, far more valuable than the solid. In the former 

 are found all the soluble salts which the animal system contains, 

 together with the greater part of the substances producing nitrogen. 

 The urine consists of the wastes of the body : this is continually, 

 every instant, undergoing change. Portions of matter which help to 

 form our bodies to-day, will be gone to-morrow ; and in the course 

 of a few years, the whole is renovated. Everything, except what 

 is carried off by the lungs and skin, passes off with the urine. 



The solid excrements consist only of those parts of the food 

 which ure not appropriated to, or fit for the nourishment of, the body, 

 with a small quantity of the peculiar secretion of the intestines. 

 Now, from these remarks, it will be seen that in the liquid and solid 

 excrements, we have the means of replacing all that is taken from 



