1847„ 



GENESEE FARMER. 



11 



selves, or by their immediate agents. Ttiey do 

 not now buy dirt and gum for wool, or coarse 

 wool i'o\- line. It thereiore becomes our interest 

 to grow that description of wool for which they 

 will best compensate our labor. 



Solomon Hitchcock. 



Conesus, Livingston Co., March 25, 1846. 



Remarks. — We can not let the above highly 

 instructive communication pass without thanking 

 the author for th? same. Its important facts 

 should be well considered. 



Again we sav, " Farmers teach one another.^' 



Bone Manure. 



Mr. Editor : — The use of bones as a manure, 

 is but little known or appreciated in this country. 

 It has become so important in Europe that even 

 the battle fields have been ransacked for the last 

 remnants of those human beings whose trade 

 was war and desolation There is nothing more 

 fertilizing than decaying animal matter ; it con- 

 tains all the elements, but two or three, required 

 in vegetable organization, and earth, air, and 

 water su; ply those. 



I was astounded at the loss sustained in this 

 county alone, as set forth by the figures of our 

 friend Robinson, the superintendent of the 

 County Poor. It is certainly singular that no 

 one in this city, where water-power, capital, and 

 mechanical ingenuity are so abundant, does not 

 enter into the grinding of bones, as a matter of 

 profit and of service to the country, and giving 

 employment to the poor in gathering the materi- 

 al. It could not fail of being a profitiable in- 

 vestment. 



Bones, <o be serviceable, should be pulverized 

 to a fineness, from the size of a kernel of corn 

 to the size of a wheat kernel, and even much 

 finer for some crops. But in the absence of the 

 ability to grind them, they should be crushed 

 with the hammer, and if no finer than the size 

 of " a piece of chalk," it is an improvement over 

 using them whole, as they are more dissemina- 

 ted in the soil and brought in contact with the 

 roots of the plant. As a substitute for a mill, a 

 cast iron block, 16 inches square and 6 inches 

 thick, with a hole through the center 8 inches in 

 diameter, having slats or recesses niade to drop 

 in pieces of Russia bar iron, in the form of a 

 grate, upon which the bones are broken with a 

 cast iron sledge and hammer. The spaces should 

 be about half an inch, consequently no portions 

 of the bone could pass less than that size, and 

 many much smaller, and could be performed by 

 very cheap labor; even the inmates of the Poor 

 House might be profitably employed, or old per- 

 sons and children. The manure would not be 

 as immediately effective as if finer, but would be 

 more durable and require more to the acre. 



Some twenty-five years ago, 1 was concerned 

 in a mercantile establishment in this city, and in 



sending out afticlesof eastern manufacture to sell, 

 1 forwarded a dozen of the patent Dung Forks ; 

 for which act of folly, as my partner said, I was 

 ridiculed and abused for my ignorance of the fer- 

 tility of the western country. " Why it was as 

 much as to say that they used or needed manure 

 on their land." But I believe that idea is now 

 obsolete, and that farmers have made up their 

 minds that, to insure good crops, they must ma- 

 nure their land in some way ; and it is almost 

 frightful to think what a waste of this most valu- 

 able food for plants is submitted to. What a 

 fountain of wealth in the bones of tiiis city, in 

 the horn j)iths of the tanneries, and in the boil- 

 ing houses, where 10 to 20,000 theep are killed 

 annually for their hide and tallow; and which 

 is a total loss, or worse, poisoning the Genesee 

 River, or filling up vacant lots and disseminating 

 poisonous and deleterious gasses ! 



Bones can be dissolved by sulphuric acid, (oil 

 of vitriol,) retaining and bringing into immedi- 

 ate effect every valuable property they contain. 

 About one third of the weight of the bones of 

 acid (which is a cheap ;;rficle,) is required, dilu- 

 ted with its own weight of rain water, to disolve 

 them, which may be done in a wood cask. The 

 liquid is then mixed with soil, or vood ashes, and 

 sown on the land as a top dressing, with great 

 benefit. This process develops the entire quan- 

 tity of the super phosphate of lime, in a soluble 

 form, and in which resides one of its principal 

 virtues. This process is, however, so out of the 

 way to common farmers operations, that it can 

 only be valuable to gardners and amateurs. 



Rochester, March, 1847. L. D. 



Remarks — Our correspondent should have 

 said that to dissolve bones in oil of vitriol at least 

 six parts of rain water to one of acid should be 

 used, instead of "its own weight." The excess 

 of acid, after the bones are dissolved, should be 

 neutralized by lime or ashes. 



We are happy to inform the public that Mr. 

 M. F. Reynolds, of this city, will soon put in 

 operation an excellent mill for grinding bones. 



Farmers, collect and save all the bones you 

 can. Don't forget that the urine of all animals, 

 and especially of the human family, contains a 

 good deal of phosphoric acid — the element^ost 

 valuable in bones. To waste bread, milk and 

 meat, or the things which Providence uses to 

 form human food in our cultivated plants, is a 

 sin — an offence against His goodness. 



Consumption. — An officer in the British East 

 India service, far gone in a consumption, is sta- 

 ted to have been perfectly cured by inhalations 

 of the vapor of melted rosin — in which practice 

 he persevered, niglit and morning, for several 

 1 months. 



The annual consumption of bread, in the city 

 of Paris, amounts to 8.'30,000,000 pounds; or at 

 the rate of 15 ounces per head, daily. 



