1S36] 



FARMERS' REGISTER. 



325 



land, the. value of bone-manure is not, to be esti- 

 mated , it is not only found to benefit the par- 

 ticular crop to which it is applied, but extends 

 tlirouirh 1 lie whole course of crops ; and even in 

 the succeedincT courses, its eHocts are visible in the 

 improved quality of the land, and the efficiency of 

 a smaller quantity than would at first have insured 

 a crop. Upon much of the high land about Bab- 

 Avortli, whi( h is a liijht sandy soil, the crops under 

 ordinary lUrm manaa'enient were comparatively 

 unproductive ; but since the introduction of bones, 

 after haviuij been dressed l()r several fallows with 

 sixty or seventy bushels per acre, they have not 

 only become productive, but so nuich improved in 

 quality as to return an equal crop with a much 

 liixhter dressinii: of manure or bones throughout 

 the next couse." 



'•On the dry Zmies/one near Doncaster, the same 

 favorable results have been obtained ; and no fail- 

 ures, beyond those attributable to peculiarity of 

 season, are noticed." 



On the JVolds of Yorkshire and Lincolnshire, 

 it also appears, by the testimony of several exten- 

 sive farmers, that "beRire bones were generally 

 used with turnip-seed, many thousand acres were 

 annually sown lor that crop without any manure 

 whatever, irom the impossibility of getting fold- 

 manure lor more than one-third or lourth of their 

 fallows. The turnips upon such unmanured land 

 were consequently very indifierent ; and the ben- 

 efit of sheep teeding upon their tops — for ol bot- 

 toms they seldom had any — was very trifling. 

 Since the use of bones has, however, become ge- 

 neral, the turnip crop has been, in many instances, 

 ten-!bld, and in few less than four or five-fold its 

 former bulk. All the succeeding crops of grain 

 and seeds have been amazingly increased, and, 

 upon the four or five-shift system, there is no doubt 

 the land will go on progressively improving, re- 

 quiring a less quantity of bones annually, from its 

 increased fertility and power." 



On light Inams, the return on the Doncaster 

 Committee give bones a preference to farm-yard 

 dung. And we learn that, upon the calcareous 

 soil of the Yorkshire Wolds, heavy crops of tur- 

 nips have been raised from 16 bushels per acre of 

 bones, Avhile in the same field, and under similar 

 circumstances, but manured from the larm-yard at 

 the rate of from 8 to 10 tons per acre, the turnips 

 have been of the most interior description. 



On peat soils, if previously drained and laid diy, 

 their advantages are reported to be so striking, that 

 from fifteen to twenty bushels of dust per acre, 

 drilled, have been also found to very far surpass 

 the ordinary dressing of stable-dung, and even of 

 lime and pigeons' dung. 



On gravels, the reports are meagre and contra- 

 dictory, though perhaps reconcilable in principle, 

 as it has been justly observed, that "a gravelly 

 soil may embrace every variety of texture and 

 quality, from the light dry sand to the water-log- 

 ged yellow clay — preserving in each the necessa- 

 ry admixture of stones and crrit." To wet gravel, 

 their application has been found decidedly unfavo- 

 rable.* 



j^nalysis. 



An examination of the component parts of soils, 



* Doncaster Report, p. 8. 



and of the power ol bones, when applied to them 

 as manure, would go far to explain the irregulari- 

 ty of their difierent eflects upon various kinds of 

 soil. Bone is known to consist of about equal 

 parts of earthy and anirnal matter ; the for- 

 mer chiefly composed of gypsum — which is of so 

 indestructible a nature as to have been termed, by 

 early chemists, the "earth of bones" — and a small 

 jiortion of carbonate of lime ; from which we iTmy 

 conclude that probably half the weij/ht of bones 

 is in the greater part consumed by plants as direct 

 nourishment in their state of growth, and that the 

 remainder is more gradually absorbed by the soil, 

 as well also as by the plants ; tor lime, though in 

 small amount, is always present, in greater or less 

 quantity, in all vegetable substances. 



"The quantity of earthy matter varies accord- 

 ing to the age of the animal ; and, in like man- 

 ner, the quantity of animal matter varies also 

 in proportion to the condition of the animal. In 

 the best kinds of bones for manure, viz., those 

 li'om fat young animals, perhaps the following 

 proportions may give an approximation to the rel- 

 ative quantities of each in 100 parts: — 



Earthy and saline matter - - 40 ^ 

 Cartilage and jelly - - - 40 > parts. 

 Fatty matter - - - - 20 3 



The soft parts thus form, in the best bone, about 

 sixty, and upon an average, perhaps, amount to 

 fiity per cent., which are almost entirely consti- 

 tuted of the same elements of plants, and all of 

 them, sooner or later, liable to be dissolved and ab- 

 sorbed by the roots. The cartilage, indeed, when 

 the bones have been buried in a dry situation, is 

 very indestructible; but when exposed to the ac- 

 tion of air, water, soil, and vegetation, probably 

 pass into the state of jelly, and be dissolved, or 

 otherwise decomposed, probably at the time when 

 the fatly matter — the decomposition of which be- 

 gins almost immediately — shall have been nearly 

 exhausted."* 



This analysis has been taken from an anony- 

 mous essay "on the action of ground bones on 

 plants and soils;" the author of which observes, 

 that "although it be granted that the comjiosition 

 of bones is thus well calculated to afford nourish- 

 ment to plants, ii must be admitted that the amount 

 of their action as a manure still remains in a great 

 measure unexplained. The quantity allowed per 

 acre is not usually more than 10 or 15 cwt., of 

 which not more than a half is eflicient as manure : 

 and this is but a small fraction of the weight vvhicl 

 we carry off the field in vegetable produce. Ii 

 these circumstances, we must either leave tht 

 matter unresolved, or have recourse to hypothetica 

 explanation, to be confirmed or disproved by fu- 

 ture observation." We agree with him in prefer- 

 ring the latter alternative, as best calculated tc 

 lead to a discovery of the truth ; and as an inquirj 

 into the cause of the different results occasioncc 

 by the specific application of bones to everj 

 species of soil would only lead us into- a wide anc 

 probably fruitless discussion, we shall confine our- 

 selves to an account of the analysis given by Mr- 

 (i. Sinclair, of the two kinds on which trials are 

 mentioned by him to have been made in Oxford- 

 shire. 



That on the land of Sir Charles Throckmorton, 



* Quart. Jour, of Agric, N. S., vol. i. p. 49 



