94 



Use and abuse of Bones as a Manure. 



Vol. III. 



Columbica Rail Road, about fourteen miles trom 

 Philadelphia. They will find in approach- 

 ing his house two excellent fences of this 

 thorn, which would be a sufficient barrier to 

 the most resolute ox, the most stubborn pip, 

 or the most courageous horse. I trust, Mr. 

 Editor, some of your friends will elucidate 

 upon what I have here hinted at, w that we 

 may have one important question to farmers 

 decided upon, namely : What is the best and 

 cheapest fence, where timber and stone are 

 scarce 1 Anglice. 



August 29, 1838. 



Fron\ the Marclesiield Courier. 

 TJse and abuse of Bones as a Manure* 



In 1834, two fields of sand land adjacent to 

 Clumber Park, the one at right angles to the 

 other, each containing about 20 acres, were 

 sown with turnep seeds among barley ; when- 

 ever these fields had been sown with turneps, 

 for twenty years before 1825, they had always 

 been manured with bones; in that year they 

 were largely so manured. The seeds sown 

 with barley in 1826 having been burnt up in 

 that dry summer, in 1828 the land in both 

 those fields was again broken up. In 1829, 

 it was again followed with turneps, and ma- 

 nured with bones. In 1833, both these fields 

 were again .sown with turneps, parts of each 

 of which were manured with bones, and the 

 remainder with farmyard dung. 



In 18.'^, when the corn was cut, it was 

 found that the seeds had failed in each of 

 theise fields where the bones had been applied, 

 and that they were very good where they 

 had been manured with dung. In one of 

 these fields the failure exactly followed the 

 line of the difference of the manures, with 

 two exceptions, that the seeds did not quite 

 fail in two spots where formerly there had 

 been dung heaps. In the other field the fail- 

 ure did not so exactly follow the line of de- 

 marcation, but the exceptions were very few. 

 Generally speaking, the manured land is bet- 

 ter than the boned land, but the ditTerence of 

 quality is not great, the crop of barley on the 

 manured land had been at the rate of five 

 quarters per acre, on the other four. 



Immediately after harvest fresh seeds were 

 sown on the boned land; they came up very 

 thick, but in six weeks died and disappeared. 

 During the winter the land was again fal-j 

 lowed, and fresh seeds were again sown ini 

 the spring of 1835. Tliey cannot be said to! 

 have failed, but they were a very inferior 

 crop, and notwithstundinga manuring of farm- 

 yard dung applied as a top dressing the fol- 

 lowing spring, they have not yet recovered a 

 parity with the rest of the fields. In this 

 case it seems impossible to attribute the fail- 

 ure of these seeds, where they have failed, to 



any other cause than the bones, v\hich had 

 certainly been applied with unusual abun- 

 dance ; and it is the more surprising that such 

 a cause should have produced such an effect, 

 because in the early periods of the ui-e of that 

 manure, it appeared to be in no respect more 

 advantageous than in its tendency to encour- 

 age the growth of the clovers. Of this ten- 

 dency, the most remarkable instances have 

 been repeatedly seen on very poor land, and 

 none more so than one which occurred on a 

 very poor piece of land prepared for a planta- 

 tion by a crop of turneps, manured for with 

 forty bushels per ficre, on which b'^'twern the 

 trees, a great deal of clover ha^ sponUineously 

 sprung up. Previously to this land having 

 been broken up for turnep.s, scarcely a plunt 

 of clover was to be seen. Now the fields qn 

 which the seeds have failed had (as above 

 stated) received much more frequently than 

 usual, complete dressings of bone.". 



Combining the great advantace of bones 

 on the first application of them with this tiiil- 

 ure, it seems difficult to avoid the conclusion, 

 that as the bones while they are new to the 

 land have produced the most beneficial eRi:ctp, 

 and as this failure has taken place where their 

 application has been most frequently repeated, 

 the success is in a great measure owin;: to 

 the novelty, and the liiilure to the repetition 

 of their application. 



If the preceding statement required any 

 confirmation, it has received it in 1P37. In 

 this year a field which had been in turneps 

 in 183fi, had been laid down to grass. The 

 north side of this field is very inferior sand 

 land, and as, till lately, it was supposed that 

 such land would not pay for the expense of 

 bones, they had ne\ er been applied to it. For 

 the first time in 1836, bones were used (or 

 the turnep fallow. The south side of this 

 field, which for many years has always been 

 manured with bones, when in tallow for tur- 

 neps, was divided into four divisions; the 

 western side was manured with farmyard 

 dung; that next to it with bones; the two 

 eastern divisions were manured, the one with 

 rape dust and the other with malt culms. 

 At\er harvest the seeds on the north side ap- 

 peared to be best ; then those on the western 

 side of the field ; then thase on the two east- 

 ern divisions, which were rather inferior; and 

 those on that where the bones iiad been applied 

 were visibly the worst. The frost has been 

 so injurious to the seeds, that this ditl'erence 

 between the three eastern divisions is not 

 now so marked as it was before the frost : but 

 the superiority of the northern side and the 

 western division is very apparent. 



Before you give way to nnger, try to find 

 a reason for not being angry. 



