NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



341 



erful manure for all of our cultivated crops. Phos- 

 phates are a necessary condition of life and luxuri- 

 ance to all or nearly all valuable plants, and it is 

 obviously important to furnish them in such a form 

 as shall he mostly readily available. 



Several important papers relative to steamed 

 bones have been lately published in the Journal of the 

 Chemico-Agricultural Society of Ulster, Ireland. 

 Some of these, and perhaps the most interesting, 

 are by Mr. D. T. Jones, a gentleman who was 

 studying in the laboratory of Prof. Johnson at Ed- 

 inburgh, when T was also a student there. He is 

 now applying his chemical knowledge to the 

 improvement of a large estate in the west of Ire 

 land. 



He has made some experiments on the actual 

 cost of the process, counting in the price of the 

 bones, of the fuel, of labor, &c. His boiler held 7 

 cwt., and the results were taken from five succes- 

 sive charges. Bone dust cost £Q 12s, or about 

 $30 per ton, while a ton of raw bones cost but £3 

 or about $15. The additional expense of steam- 

 ing was a little less than $1. For a trifle more 

 than half, then, he obtained by the steaming pro- 

 cess a ton of bones far more finely divided , and con- 

 sequently more immediately beneficial, than bone 

 dust. Other writers give almost equally favorable 

 results. 



The advantage of economy, then, seems clearly 

 to rest with this process. The question arises, 

 however, is there any loss of valuable substance. 

 With a view to settle this question, Mr. Jones has 

 lately made some direct experiments. Dr. Voelck- 

 er, of Cirencester Agricultural College, analyzed 

 some specimens of the steamed bones as prepared 

 by Mr. Jones, for the express purpose of compar- 

 ing them with the bone dust. The following ana- 

 lyses give his result: 



Steamed Bones. Bone Dust. 



Orsanic matter, 28.68 35.25 



Phosi)hate of Lime, 57.73 54.40 



Carbonic of Alkalies, 4.29 1.49 



S.ind, 9.30 9.26 



A comparison of these two analyses shows, that 

 during the steaming a loss of organic matter has 

 taken place amounting to nearly eight per cent. 

 This is the gelatine of the bone, dissolved out by 

 the stem. This loss is however only apparent, as 

 a moment's reflection will show, that this dissolved 

 gelatine will be found in the water that occupies 

 the lower part of the boiler. After one or two 

 charges therefore, this water should be drawn off, 

 diluted with fresh water, and applied as a top- 

 dressing upon meadows or young grain. The gela- 

 tine being a highly nitrogenous, and therefore val- 

 uable manure, produces an excellent effect when 

 applied in this way. If not convenient to use this 

 solution in a liquid form, it may be mixed with 

 peat, ashes, vegetable mould, &c., or added to a 

 compost heap. 



We thus see that every portion of the bone is 

 preserved, and made useful as a fertilizer, and that 

 too by a cheap process. Some farmer in each 

 neighborhood might setup an apparatus at a trifling 

 expense, and supply the whole adjoining country at 

 reasonable rates. Or an association might do the 

 same thing, each steaming his own collection of 

 bones in turn. By managing in this way the ex- 

 pense to each individual would be quite small, and 

 all the bones got together in the course of the sea- 

 son could soon be brought into a state fit for use. 

 They are now .so commonly disregarded and wasted, 



that in most situations a farmer might possess 

 himself of large quantities for a merely nominal 

 sum. 



The crushed mass of steamed bones, if left to it- 

 self, soon heats and ferments, causing a loss of ni- 

 trogen in the form of ammonia. To prevent this 

 in cases where the bones are not to be used at once, 

 it is recommended to use a little salt; this arrests 

 decomposition, and is itself of some value as a ma- 

 nure. It also serves in many cases as a check to 

 injurious insects, by dfistroying their grubs.- — 

 Where it is desirable to add a highly ammoniacal 

 and energetically acting manure, it is only neces- 

 sary to withhold the salt, and allow fermentation 

 to go on till ammonia begins to be largely given 

 off. The heap should then be mixed with gyp- 

 sum, peat ashes or charcoal dust. This applied to 

 the soil, will act as quickly and as powerfully as 

 guano, with the advantage of a far less price. 

 From six to ten cwt. of these bones would produce 

 more effect upon most of our crops, than a very 

 great application of farm-yard manure, and being 

 so portable, might often be employed with a very 

 great saving of expense. I think that the addition 

 of 8 or 10 lbs. of sulphuric acid to each 100 lbs. 

 of this manure would be a still farther improve- 

 ment. 



This method seems to me remarkably feasible, 

 simple, effective and cheap, and I hope that this 

 notice may induce some of our more enterprising 

 farmers to try it, and make their success public. 

 The apparatus need cost but little at first, and the 

 came boiler might be employed to steam food for 

 stock in winter. Yours truly, 



John P. Norton. 

 — Albany Cultivator. 



EXPERIMENTS WITH SORREL. 

 Mr. Freas: — I hear and see a good deal spoken 

 and written against sorrel, which I do not think it 

 deserves. I will give you my views upon it. 

 Sorrel is generally regarded as a wortliless pro- 

 duction. Still it is not always easy to get rid of. 

 On many farms, and more especially on such as are 

 of a sandy formation, and imbued with acids, sor- 

 rel readily takes root, and finding in the soil an 

 abundance of appropriate pabulum, it grows and 

 perpetuates itself with surprising and fatal vigor. 

 On all lands of this description, it springs sponta- 

 neously. When a farmer finds that his fields have 

 become infested with it, his only remedy is to 

 make the best of it. If he keeps horses or sheep, 

 they will find a ready market for the produce of the 

 "sorrel plot," and will be found to do as well as 

 when fed on the best cultivated grasses, with a lib- 

 eral supply of grain. Of the correctness of this I 

 am convinced by numerous experiments made with 

 a view to ascertain, precisely, its specific value 

 for feeding, my farm being one on which the plant 

 grows with the most luxuriant vigor, and cannot 

 easily be got rid of. Horses, fed on sorrel hay — 

 made, as hereafter stated, without a particle of 

 provender — do remarkably well, and will perform 

 as much work in the spring, as those supplied 

 with any feed it is possible to give them. As the 

 sorrel grows short, and contains, for so diminutive 

 a plant, a very considerable quantity of seed, it 

 should be cut early in the season — say as soon as 

 the seeds have fairly formed, and be made, not by 

 open and long exposure to a hot sun, but in grass 

 cock.'" This is done by allowing the crop to re- 



