174- 



JNEW El^ GLAND FARMER . 



iipRii 



zeal of its head, and harmony shall prevail in its 

 councils, it will l>e the means of shedding ui>told 

 blessings upon the nation and worlds 



BONES rOR MANUlEiEf. 

 Tc A. S., South Freedom, Me. — "Where can I 

 get sulphuric acid to dissolve bones? (a.) What 

 is the price ■? {b.) What quantity I's needed m pro- 

 portion to the bones to I>e dissulved ? (c.) Do you 

 think it would be profitable to purchase a-cid to 

 dissolve all tha bones !• can get?" {d.} 



Remarks."— (rt.) You can procure aulphuric acid 

 In any quantity^ at tlie drug store of Charles II. 

 Badgeu & Co., 47 and 49 Blackstonc Street, Bos- 

 ton. 



{b.) By the Carboy, Containing 15'0 to 200 gal- 

 lons, 2i cts. a pound ; it weighs about 16 lbs. to 

 the gallon. In small quuntities it would eome a 

 little higher. 



(c.) Get a box made, say G feet long by 2 feet 

 high and two or three wide, dove-tailed and joint- 

 ed with white lead. Put in the y,'ater first ; then 

 thf, swlph'jric aCid, allowing one-half more bulk of 

 Water than acid, and one-half less lought of acid 

 than bones ; that is, to a gallon of acid, allow a 

 gallon and a half of water ; and to 100 pounds of 

 bones, allow 50 lbs. of acid.. Then add the bones 

 finely broken up, and mix the whole intimately 

 and equally Cover the bos with a lid or old sacks. 

 and let it stand, untouched, 48 hours. 



This method of dissolving bones is given in the 

 Transactions of the Ilighla'd and Agricultural So- 

 ciety of Scotland, for 1851, and ia the simplest and 

 easiest with which we are aequainted. It is re- 

 eommended by some that wlien the dissolving pro- 

 cess has been gone through with, that the mass be 

 thoroughly mixed with dry ashea before- b^ing ap- 

 plied to the soil. 



('/.) We do — because the bones ai-^ exceedingly 

 valuable, and tlie acid is also a fertilizer in itself. 

 But make careful a.nd esact experiments, in a 

 small way, to begin with, and tell us the results of 

 your experience. 



While speaking of this subject, it may bo proper 

 to add that sulphuric acid is invaluable for many 

 purposes, and is coming iuto common use, particu- 

 larly among English farmers. It used to cost some 

 seven or eight cents a pound, but since the intro- 

 duction of platinum receivers, in wliioli it is manu- 

 factured, a great reduction in price has been effect- 

 ed, notvvitlistanding t!iese receivers cost about 

 $5,000 e;ie?). I'ho production of crops removes 

 the phospliate of lime from tlie soil — bones dis- 

 solved in sulphuric acid produce this phosphate, 

 and the phosphoric acid so produced has been 

 brought to hear upon the land with most beneficial 

 effects. Professor Likbig gives it as liis opinion, 

 that the commercial prosperity of a country may 

 be estimated by the quantities of sulphuric acid it 



consumes; and Mr. Pusey, M. P., declared in a 

 lecture on it, that he considers it no inadequate 

 critsrion of the degree of civilization. However, 

 tShat is pretty much like many other things intro- 

 duced. There is scarcely a greater indication of a, 

 high degree ofcivilization than the immense quan- 

 tities oi c&tton cloth used in the country, -^and cer- 

 tainly, no one thing add& more to fehe comfort of 

 our peopJe. In Wiley and Putnam^s edition of 

 Liebig, page 184, it is remarked that IngenhousS 

 proposed dilute sulphuric as a means of increasing 

 the feTtility of the soil. This is meationed to give 

 force to OH-r reply, alx)ve, under lettei? (d.) 



Sulphuric acid comes f?om sulphur aivd oxygen ,- 

 one part or atom of the former, and three part& 

 or atoms of the latter. It may also be obtained in 

 a solid and dry state. SxccKnARDT says that what> 

 iron is to the machinist, sulphuric acid is to the 

 chemist, and that it stands, as it were, the Hercu- 

 les among the acids, and by it we are able to ovei"-- 

 power all others, and expel them fifoia their eom- 

 binations. 



THE PICTORIAL FISI.D-BOOK. 



This rich quarry of historic wealth is now ia 

 completed state, accessible to every Am erLean, and 

 certainly every American should dig in its ample- 

 mines. Mr. Lo-^sing. has come to the rescue at the- 

 right period. Ten years- more and it would have- 

 been too late. Every year or month was sweeping; 

 away some tenement around which gathered revo- 

 lutionary associations, some ancient record or fur- 

 rowed face, and whiah soon would have been lost 

 forever to the world, but which are now securely 

 embalmed by the pen and pencil of this artist-au- 

 tlior. Our countrymen were so absorbed in the- 

 present, that they were forgetting the past. Pro- 

 gress was striding over our ancient battlefields, re- 

 gardless of the bones that bleached beneath her 

 feet. Agriculture drove her remorseless coulter 

 through the mossy ramparts that once sheltered 

 the gallant heroes of our liberty. The time-hon- 

 ored sti'uctuyes that kept oif the dew and the rain 

 from many a patriot liead, were tiunbling indis- 

 criminately ))8f'ore the blows of that improvement, 

 which would destroy an association as ruthlessly 

 as it would erusli a weed. The mound, the wall, 

 the ditch, that had witnessed the intensest suffer- 

 ing, the bravest endeavor, the most hei^oic defences 

 and assaults, over which the whistling balls had 

 cut the air, and almost yet echoing with the clang 

 of battle and the shouts of victory, were yielding 

 to friendly strokes what they refused to hostile 

 arms, and surrendering their ancient forms to the 

 desecrating plow. Why should they longer i-e- 

 niain to remind a people of the struggles their free- 

 dom had cost? Wheat would not grow in the 

 ditch, nor corn spring out of the wall. And in a 

 country so crowded for room, hitting its elbows 

 against the oceans as it turned round on its nar- 

 row base of sixty degrees of latitude, it could not 

 affjrd to let an old tree stand, though its rough 

 bark held the testimony of a terrible conflict, nor 

 permit the remnants of a venerable fortification to 

 mark to the eye of posterity some spot hallowed 

 with patriot blood. Hapidly, rapidly were these 

 glorious mementoes disappearing before the utili- 



