1869. 



NEW ENGLAND FARIHER. 



63 



USE OF BONE AS A FERTILIZEK. 



OME satisfactory experiments 

 have been made during the 

 I i; past two or three seasons in the 

 use of bone as a manure, while 

 others have failed to give that sat- 

 isfaction which was expected. But 

 in the hands of careful and pa- 

 tient persons, many results of the 

 use of bones have thoroughly satisfied some, 

 who entertained sincere doubts of their utility, 

 that bones are an exceedingly valuable stimu- 

 lant of vegetable life, and that every pound of 

 them not needed in the arts ought to be pre- 

 served and properly prepared for use on the 

 soil. 



We do not mean by this that the flour of 

 bone, or bone in any form, is a universal pan- 

 acea that will bring a crop on any soil and un- 

 der all circumstances. By no means. Crude 

 bone is extremely slow in its action, — but when 

 reduced to flour, it is so active as to require 

 great care in its use, as it will soon bring on 

 fermentation in the coarsest materials that we 

 convert into manure. This is a great merit in 

 it, as it enables us to prepare fine composts for 

 applying to the hill ; this helps us essentially 

 in bringing crops forward rapidly, in such cold 

 and late seasons as the last planting season 

 was. Some of our correspondents have rather 

 undervalued the merit of bones, we think, — 

 and so all other substances used as manure have 

 been. We can show the reader acres of land, 

 sufficiently dry for cultivation, which was lib- 

 erally dressed with excellent barn manure, and 

 without the slightest visible effect ! Who can 

 tell why? The true value of any fertilizer 

 cannot be determined by any single experi- 

 ment. 



The bones of animals are composed of an 

 animal substance called gelatine, and certain 

 inorganic matters. By calcination, bones are 

 deprived of their animal matter, but the ac- 

 tion of fire affects them essentially, in no 

 other way, a bone after calcination, being, in 

 every material respect, precisely the same, so 

 far*as its inorganic properties are concerned, 

 as it was before. The organic substances con- 

 tained in the bones of the mammalia, and of 

 man, may be assumed, on an average, to be 

 32 to 33 per cent. Of this, somewhat more 

 than one-half is nitrogen. The remaining 

 67 or 68 per cent, are of phosphates (52 to 

 57 per cent.) 



Berzelius gives the following analysis : — 



Hones of the Ox. 



Anitnal matter, (gelatine) 33.30 



Soda and cemmon salt 2 45 



Carbonate of lime 3 85 



Phosphate of lime £5-45 



Fluoride of calcium 2.&0 



Phosphate of magaeeium 2 05 



100.00 



Prof. Johnston states, without qualification, 

 that 100 lbs. of dry bone dust add to the soil 

 as much organic animal matter as 300 to 400 

 lbs. of blood or flesh, and they add at the same 

 time two-thirds of their weight of inorganic 

 matter, consisting of lime, magnesia, soda, 

 common salt, and phosphoric acid (in the 

 phosphates) — all of which must be present In 

 a fertile soil, since the plants require a certain 

 supply of them all at a certain period of their 

 growth. These substances, like the Inorganic 

 matter of plants, may remain in the soil and 

 may exert a beneficial action upon vegetation 

 after all the organic or gelatinous matter has 

 decayed and disappeared. 



Some have supposed that the fertilizing 

 power of bones is derived mainly, or In a 

 great measure, from the nitrogen contained In 

 the gelatinous substance of the bones ; but we 

 believe that experience has demonstrated that 

 that calcined bones, which have been deprived 

 of their gelatine by the action of fire, have a 

 much more Immediate and potent effect upon 

 vegetation than bones in their crude or natu- 

 ral state. The presence of the nitrogenous 

 constituents of the bones Is therefore to be 

 regarded as an obstacle to the rapid and gen- 

 ial manifestation of their fertilizing qualities. 



As to the phosphates of bones, it may be 

 proper here to remark, as in the case of hu- 

 mus, they can only become capable of being 

 assimilated by the vegetable system after the 

 complete destruction of the organic substance 

 by putrefaction. 



The use of bone manure, as well as of 

 ground shells — both of the "Crustacea" and 

 "Testacea," — will yet become more common 

 in this country. The popular mind is already 

 awake to the importance of according a greater 

 degree of attention to the fertilization of soils, 

 and the feeding of crops ; and in this new 

 manifestation of enterprise we have a flatter- 

 ing guarantee that agriculture, so long kept 

 below its proper grade in the arts. Is to as- 

 sume Its legitimate position, and produce its 

 legitimate results. 



The farmers of England have long been 



