126 MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAL, SOCIETY. 



clover 01- buckwheat, was ploughed in, which would retain not onl}' 

 the potash, but the nitrogen and phosphates. He had used seven- 

 teen tons of commercial fertilizers in a year to advantage, and 

 prefers potash in the form of muriate. When he uses stable manure 

 he sprinkles potash over it. 



"William H. Hunt said that in common with most farmers away 

 from cities he had found a deflciency of manure. He had bought 

 a good deal of stable manure, which cost him eight dollars per cord 

 at his farm iu Concord, and at this price he considered it an expen- 

 sive manure. Some years ago he began buying phosphates and 

 other commercial fertilizers, but concluded that they paid only 

 with exceptional crops. He then began with the elements, bone 

 and ashes, buying a large quantity of the former at his farm, and 

 using freely on grapes and strawberries, and was much pleased 

 with the results. Since then he has bought from three to ten tons 

 of bones yearl}-, and ashes when he could get them. He found 

 that it did not pay to use acid to reduce bones ; unlike potash, it 

 is not valuable as a fertilizer, and the same money expended for 

 potash would produce better results. Last year he used eighteen 

 hundred or two thousand pounds of potash, which cost four and a 

 half cents per pound. It comes in casks of about four hundred 

 pounds each, and is as hard as stone. He used four or five parts 

 of bone to one of potash. The bone, which is ground, but not very 

 fine, is spread in the barn cellar. The potash is broken with a 

 sledge-hammer, and dissolved to saturation in a large kettle of 

 boiling water. It is then turned on the bone, and sets up a great 

 heat, evolving nitrogen, to absorb which plaster is used. Kieserite 

 (sulphate of magnesia) is a better absorbent, but costs more. It 

 is also Itself a good fertilizer for grapes. The mixture of bone 

 and potash is allowed to stand two or three weeks, and is turned 

 over several times, and each time covered and mixed with plaster 

 or loam. It is considerable trouble to reduce bones in this way, 

 but it gives a better return for the money than buying fertilizers 

 iu the market. After the heap has fermented, large pieces of bone 

 can be crushed in the fingers. He uses no other fertilizer than this 

 on his strawberries, and it is equally good on grapes. He has put 

 no animal manure on his grapes since they were set out, but dressed 

 either with ashes or bone and potash in some form, and this treat- 

 ment has been so satisfactory that he will continue it. A neighbor 

 has used a similar preparation of bone and potash on his pear 

 trees, making the fruit better and fairer. The speaker did not 



