1869 



NEW ENGLAND FAEMER. 



339 



commended, gives quite different results. The 

 caustic alkalies act upon the gelatinv^ or the 

 animil portion of the bone, and become in 

 part saponified ; and by abstracting or appro- 

 priating this portion of the bony structure, the 

 atoms of phosphate of lime are liberated and 

 made rea>ly for plant food. The soapy, alka- 

 line portion goes to form a healthy, robust 

 stalk ; the phosphoric acid and lime gives full, 

 plump seeds. 



It may be farther remarked, regarding the 

 fertilizer spoken of above, that the prices 

 affixed to the substances are as far from being 

 coirect as the formula. The cost of the mix- 

 ture would be n'.'arly double the price stated. 



Dissolving Sones. 



We suppose as acceptable and useful ser- 

 vice can be done our agricultural readers in 

 pointing out the errors into which they are 

 liable o fill, and warning them against the 

 expensive and profitless experiments they may 

 be led to undertake, as in stating new facts, 

 or calling attention to new and import, ,nt dis- 

 coveries. They are constantly liable to be 

 misled by the statements made at farmers' club 

 meetings and through the journals professedly 

 devoted to their interests. We have recently 

 read, in one of the most widely circulated of 

 our agricultural papers, an editorial article 

 upon uissolving bones in sulphuric acid, in 

 which farmers are advised to collect large 

 quantities of bones, reduce them to fragments 

 by pounding, and then dissolve them by pour- 

 ing on the acid. Also the same wise advice was 

 given by severaUpeakers, at a recent meeting 

 of the New York Farmers' Club. Now, this 

 is all wrong. Farmers should not be advised 

 to treat bones in this way, as it will certainly 

 end in disappointment and pecuniary loss. 

 Kaw bones pounded into fragments cannot be 

 fully and expeditiously dissolved in acid ; and 

 whoever recommends the process has never 

 tried the experiment, or if he has, he pur- 



f)Osely misleads. Fragments of bones no 

 arger than a hazel-nut may remain in strong 

 or dilute acid for months, and may not be per- 

 ceptibly acted upon. A bit of bone, when 

 brought in contact with sulphuric acid or oil 

 of vi'.riol, is immediately attacked by it upon 

 the surface, and the action goes on but a little 

 while before a film or coating of insoiuble 

 gypsjm or sulphate of lime forms upon the 

 suifacc, and Ihis prevents farther action. In 

 order to dissolve bony structures and tit them 

 for plant food, they must first be ground to 

 fine powder and the finer the better, as the 

 acid can then cut through the little atoms, and 

 disintegrate them entirely. Coarse pounded 

 bones should never be placed in contact with 

 acid with the idea of dissolving them ; they 

 will not dissolve. Strong potash lye will dis- 

 solve whole bones, and therefore they may be 

 packed in ashes under certain conditions, with 

 j;ood results. If a farmer has a quantity oi 

 bones on his premises which cannot conven- 



iently be ground, it is better to burn them to 

 whiteness, and in this condition they can be 

 ground in a common stone mill ; and the pow- 

 der when acted upon by acid forms most ex- 

 cellent true superphosphate of lime, useful 

 for almost all kinds cf crops. 



AGKICULTUHAL ITEMS. 



— A man in Syracuse, N. Y., has noticed that 

 common currants standins close to blacli currant 

 buslies were not meddled with by the worms 

 which destroyed them in other parts of his garden. 



— Messrs. Ij^aac Hicks & Son, Old Westbury, 

 L. I., raised last year, nine rows of as many differ- 

 ent varieties of potatoes, side by side, with the 

 following res-uit: — Early Goodrich, 188 bushels 

 per acre; Early Samaritan, 96; Early Rose, 235; 

 Harrison, 265; Calico, 267; Gleason, 254; Van- 

 derveer, 227; Gardner, 215; Peach Blow, 196. 



— A correspondent of the Rural New Yorker, 

 after alluding to the diflSculty of administering 

 medicine to horses in the usual way, says he now 

 holds up the horse's head and puts the neck of the 

 bottle into one of his nostrils as far as he can, and 

 the liquid will run down the horse's throat, with- 

 out swallowing or effort, and without wasting a 

 drop. 



— It appears from the monthly statement of the 

 Treasury Department that of the 65,972 immi- 

 grants who arrived in this country during the 

 quarter ending September 30, 1868, 4615 were far- 

 mers, 11,769 laborers, 4686 mechanics, 2940 mer- 

 chants, 1036 miners, 365 professional callings, 1612 

 servants, other occupations 940, without occupa- 

 tion 38,009. 



— By the Monthly Report of the Treasury De- 

 partment it appears that for the nine months end- 

 ing September 30, 1868, the imports of raw and 

 fleece wool amounted to 19,354,356 pounds ; and 

 for the same period in 1867 it was 27,030,029 ; val- 

 ued at ^3,010,967 in 1868, and $"4,480,123 in 1867. 

 Making the cost of the wo >1 thus imported during 

 nine months of 1868, lo^c per pound. 



— Mr. J. J. Parker of West Chester, Pa., who is 

 engaged in the coal and brick business, has im- 

 ported from France a Percheron stallion for the 

 improvement of draft horses in that section. This 

 horse is five years old, over seventeen hands high, 

 weighs 1630 pounds, and is of a dapple gray. 

 His size and weight do not prevent him from hav- 

 ing in his motions all the lightness and grace of 

 the Arabian horse, while his disposition is ex- 

 ceedingly kind and tractable. 



—In a late article on the "Deterioration of the 

 Farming Interest in New England," written for 

 the Country Gentleman by Levi Bartlett, of War- 

 ner, N. H., it is said that "in most of the hill towns 

 the rural population have largely decreased within 

 the past twenty-five years ; and during the same 

 period many hundreds of what were once consid- 

 ered good and productive farms have been aban- 



