139 



The great fertilizing value of earthy Phos- 

 phates, containing, as they do, the chief mineral 

 element wanted for our grain crops, will therefore 

 be clearly apparent. The majority of soils under 

 cultivation are deficient in this inorganic plant- 

 food, so that every pound now added will 

 stimulate the soil, and have an immediate effect 

 upon the outturn. 



We may safely maintain that bone -manure 

 has contributed more to the large outturns of 

 the soils in Europe, than any of the other im- 

 provements that science has recommended to the 

 agriculturist. Its application to soils deficient in 

 phosphoric acid doubled the outturn there as if 

 by a miracle ; and the effect is not spasmodic 

 and temporary, for, under a judicious treatment 

 and a close observance of the Principles of Eational 

 Agriculture, this fertility has been preserved up to 

 the present day. 



Among some of the earliest applications, the use 

 of bone-manure in Cheshire is worthy of particular 

 remark, it having been applied there to pastures, 

 exhausted by having supplied for centuries milk, 

 butter, and meat, the mineral constituents of which 

 phosphoric acid being the principal have regu- 

 larly been consigned to the sewers of London, and 

 were thus irrecoverably lost. 



An application of 30 cwts. of bone-dust per acre 

 increased the value of these pastures from 10s. or 



