THE GENESEE FARMER. 



241 



npoQ the increased production ofcoru, it appears 

 very desirable that further experiments with this 

 cheap fertilizer should be made." 



A letter is also published from Mr. R. Stratton, 

 giving an account of an experiment of top dressing 

 three acres of wheat with nitrate of soda in April. 

 The result was that the unmanured land produced 

 16 bushels per acre, and the top dressed 36 bushels 

 — an increase of 20 bushels per acre ! 



Next, we have some remarks by the editor, P. 

 H. Fekee, on tlie money value of manures. He 

 thinks chemists have placed the theoretical value 

 of manures too high. They have taken the Peru- 

 vian guano as a standard, and, that this is too high, 

 he argues from the fact that "Dr. Voelokeb has 

 told us that (according to this stancard) the calcu- 

 lated value of a ton of rotten dung is 1.3s," whereas 

 it generally sells for 3s, or, at most, 6s per ton. 

 Estimating that it costs 2s or 3s per ton to draw it 

 on to the land and spread it, the total cost would 

 be only 8s ($2.00) per ton— or 58 per ton less than 

 the calculated price. In other words, barn yard 

 manure is cheaper than Peruvian gnano, or any 

 other artificial manure, at present prices. This is 

 what we have always asserted. 



THE BEST WAY TO USE ?ONES. 



George Haskell, of Ipswich, Mass., states, in 

 the Country Oenthman, that he has tried several 

 methods of preparing bones, none of which, with 

 one exception, proved satisfactory. He once mixed 

 half a tun of ground bones with 20 bushels of leach- 

 ed ashes, and half a tun with 12 bushels of nnleaoh- 

 ed ashes, and the workmen could not open their 

 eyes in the barn next morning until the doors and 

 windows had been open long enough to let the 

 ammonia out ! 



He next mixed a tan of bones with wet yellow 

 sand — a material between sharp sand and loam. 

 This fermented finely, but itsnf;elt so bad, and was 

 so nasty, that he had to pay an exorbitant price to 

 get it applied to the land. It had a good effect, 

 however. 



He then mixed a tun of bones with a tun of 

 ground plaster ; but found the plaster wholly 

 incapable of keeping down the carrion smell, or of 

 absorbing the manure given out in the form of 

 gases. 



The method which he adopted with success is as 

 follows : 



" Take a tnn of ground bone (the finer ground 

 the better,) and one half an ox cnrt load (} of a 

 cord) of good friable soil, which will not break or 

 cake by drying, and which is free from sods and 



stones, no matter how wet it may be wlien used. 

 Place a layer of tlie soil and a layer of the bone, 

 of about equal thickness, upon each other, (soil at 

 tlie bottom) on the barn floor, or under cover in a 

 shed or outbuilding, leaving a busliel or two of the 

 soil to cover the heap when all the rest is put to- 

 gether. The heap will be three to four feet wide 

 at the bottom, and twice as long. In forty-eight 

 hours it will be too hot to hold your hand in. Let 

 it remain undisturbed until the heap begins to cool, 

 which will be in a week to ten days. Then ' tlirow 

 over' the heap by 'chopping "it down' with a 

 shovel, and moving it 'in end,' thorou-hly mixing 

 the soil and bone. In a day or two it will heat 

 again. Let it remain until it cools, or for eight or 

 ten days; then throw it over in the same manner 

 again. In a few days it will heat again, unless the 

 previous ternuntatious have exhausted all the 

 moisture in the soil and bone. Throw over each 

 ten days until all the moisture is thus exhausted, 

 and it does not ferment any more ; then it will be 

 fit for use, and can be put away in old barrels, and 

 it will be ready for use, without deterioration, for 

 ten years. 



"All that is necessary to make bones operate as 

 manure, is dt^composltion— rotting ; and to produce 

 this process, the bone only needs to be ground or 

 broken fine, and subjected to moisture in warm 

 weather, with some substance that will absorb or 

 retain the gases evolved during the process. Soil 

 furnishes the essential requisites, and nothii.g more 

 is needed to make bones an excellent and durable 

 manure." 



In the last number of the Journal of the R-oyal 

 Agricultural Society^ Dr. Voelckee gives it as his 

 opinion that the best manure for growing turnips 

 on light land, is a mixture of bone dust and rotten 

 dung. 



"The best way to make this mixture," he says, " is 

 to cart into a corner of the field the yard manure, 

 about three months before turnip sowing begins. 

 At the same time, the bone dust— calculating 6 to 

 8 bushels per acre — is carted next to the place 

 where the manure is to be put up in a heap. In 

 making the heap, first a thick layer of dung ia 

 placed upon the ground ; a thin sprinking of bone 

 dust is put upon it, then a layer of dung; again a 

 sprinkling of bone dust ; and so on, until all the 

 bone dust and dung are placed in alternate layers in 

 a heap. About a month before sowing the turnips, 

 the heap should be turned over. Proceeding in 

 this way, we shall find that the fermented dung 

 disintegrates and partially dissolves the bone dust 

 to such an extend that, by the time the manure is 

 ready to be distributed over the turnip field, nearly 

 the whole of the bone dust will have become de- 

 composed and uniformly amalgamated with the 

 dung. This excellent plan appears to rae by fa' 

 the most eeonoraical mode of dissolving and apply 

 ing bone dust on light land, which, as has been 

 stated, should, if possible, be manured with at least 



