No. 4. Bone-Dust for Cultivation of Grain — Seasonable Advice. 57 



Bone-Diist for Cultivation of Crraiu* 



The exportaiion of bones from Germany to 

 Eiioland constitutes a singular epoch in the 

 annals of coinuierce. Myriads of tuns have 

 been already exported without glutting the 

 market, or causing- a cessation of the demand. 

 In the vicinity of the north sea, mills have 

 been erected to pulverise them. This bone 

 powder, or bone dust, was long- ago exclusively 

 applied to the purposes of hot houses by Ger- 

 man horticulturists; but the English, embold- 

 ened by their riches, have extended its use 

 to general objects of agriculture, and fertilize 

 by these expensive means, their cold, humid 

 and poorest land ; and have thus brought the 

 uplands of Nottinghamshire, the western 

 parts of Holderness, &o. into the highest state 

 of cultivation, both in point of extent and in- 

 tenseness of fertility. There is consequent 

 ly, a proverb, " that one ton of German bone- 

 dust saves the importation often tons of Ger- 

 man corn." As Malta formerly covered her 

 naked rocks with foreign soil, so doesEsgland 

 now fertilize her clay and sandy heaths with 

 German bones, ( Near the sea-coast even the 

 churchy yards are robbed of their venerable 

 relics, Vhich is only ironically excused by 

 rendering the German bone trade popular. 

 An agriculturist, being rendered attentive by 

 this exportation, instituted privately some 

 comparative experiments, the result sof which 

 prove that bone-dust acts in the cultivation of 

 grain as compared to the best stable manure 

 First in respect to the quality of corn as 7 to 

 5; secondly, in respect to quantity as 5 to 4; 

 thirdly, in respect to durability of the energy 

 of soils as 3 to 2. It prod uces several collateral 

 advantages : First, it destroys weeds : second- 

 ly, it diminishes the necessity of suffering the 

 land to be fallow; thirdly, this concentrated 

 manure, or substitute for manure, is more 

 easy of conveyance, less laborious to spread, 

 and can with facility be applied to the steepest 

 vineyards, or other inaccessible lands, either 

 in mountainous countries or in wet meadow 

 land : fourthly, it renders agriculture practi- 

 cable without cattle breeding, grazing, &c. 



Seasonable Advice. 



See to your fatting swine. The celebrated 

 farmer, Arthur Young, said, " The best me- 

 thod of feeding all kinds of grain to hogs, is 

 to grind it to meal, and mix it with water, 

 in proportion of five bushels of meal to an 

 hundred gallons of water ; the mass to be well 

 stirred several times a day until it has fer- 

 mented and become slightly acid, when it 

 will be ready for use. In this way two or 

 three vessels must be kept for fermentation in 

 succession ; and the profit will pay the ex- 

 pense." Change of diet makes fat swine 



The unripe ears of Indian corn should be 

 given them before they become shrivelled and 

 mouldy. Hard corn should not be dealt to 

 swine without soaking, boiling or grinding. 

 Indian meal will be better tor boiling, or at 

 least scalding ; and every kind of tood, pro- 

 per for swine, will be greatly improved by 

 cooking. Your swine will fatten the faster 

 if they can have access at will, to charcoal, 

 which will give them an appetite for food, 

 and prevents their having a certain genteel 

 disorder, called dyspepsia. Protect grapes 

 and other fruit from wasps by hanging up 

 vials of honeyed or sugared water near the 

 fruits you wish to defend. Mr. Buel, of 

 Albany, who is a practical as well as scien- 

 tific cultivator, says, "it were better that the 

 sun never should shine upon potatoes — they 

 should be housed with all the dirt that ad- 

 heres to them." 



It is even beneficial to add more dirt to po- 

 tatoes in the bin or cask, to exclude external 

 air as much as possible ; their surface should 

 be kept moist, and the atmosphere which sur- 

 rounds them as little above the freezing point 

 as possible. In many situations it will be an 

 excellent scheme to rake up all the leaves of 

 trees, and mould, which has been produced 

 by their decay, which can be procured at a 

 reasonable expense, and cast them into the 

 barn yard as a layer to absorb the liquid ma- 

 nure from your cattle. Likewise, it would 

 be well to place quantities of them under 

 cover, in situations where you can obtain 

 them in winter to use as litter to your sta- 

 bles, &c. They do not rot easily, but they 

 serve as a sponge to imbibe and retain urine, 

 and convey to the field much food for plants, 

 which, otherwise, might be lost. Gather 

 v.'inter apples by hand, in the middle of fair 

 days, and by putting them down in sand well 

 dried, it is said you may keep them till apples 

 are again in season. Select your seed corn 

 from the field, culling fine, fair, sound ears 

 from such stocks as produced two or more 

 ears, taking the best of the two. Land which 

 is composed in part of clay, or what is called 

 a stiff soil, should be ploughed in the fall and 

 laid as light as possible, so as to expose it to 

 the action of frost, which will pulverize and 

 subdue it; and insects will be thus destroyed 

 by exposure to the rigors of winter. But 

 ploughed land which is sandy, loose and po- 

 rous, should lie and consolidate till spring. 

 If you ever mean to fatten cattle to advan- 

 tage, either for market or domestic consump- 

 tion, you must rely chiefly on grass and roots. 

 The celebrated cultivator, Arthur Young, 

 says, " Of the food raised on a farm, the best 

 for fatting beasts, is parsneps; next carrots; 

 then come cabbages, potatoes and turneps. 

 If a farmer has a due provision of these plants 

 with good hay for cutting into ciiafF with 



