On Bones as a Manure. 141 



No. XIV. 



ON BONES AS A MANURE, AND ON THE USE OF SEA-SHELLS, SHELL- 

 MARL AND CORAL, FOR THE SAME BENEFICIAL PURPOSES. 



Introduction. 



THE use of bones as a manure, is perhaps the most important dis- 

 covery, connected with the cultivation of the soil, that has been made 

 in the course of a great number of years. By means of that discovery, 

 and the improvements therewith connected, an end is put to every 

 difficulty in producing at home, subsistence for the people of this coun- 

 try. We may thus be rendered independent of foreign produce ; and 

 unless our population were greatly to increase, we should be hardly 

 able to consume, without the aid of exportation, the great quantities 

 of corn that can be raised, under this improved system of production. 

 It has become proverbial indeed, " That one ton of German bone- 

 dust, saves the importation of ten tons of German corn" and that 

 agriculture is thus rendered in a considerable degree practicable, with- 

 out cattle breeding, grazing, &c. Were the advantages of the disco- 

 very restricted to the use of bones alone *, as they might possibly be 

 exhausted, or raised in price, it would be less important ; but fortu- 

 nately the shells of oysters, and other fish, are found to be equally ef- 

 fectual. Shell-marl also, which abounds in many parts of the king- 

 dom, may be applied to similar purposes ; and coral, the banks of 

 which are abundant even on our own coasts, is found to be equally 

 useful. In short, it is impossible to foresee, what may be the ultimate 

 results of this new source of improvement, for by a small quantity of 

 pounded bones or shells, great crops of turnips can be raised ; and 

 with the manure which these turnips produce, abundant crops of corn 

 may be obtained, even on the poorest soils, with the aid of judicious 

 rotations. 



1. Origin of the Discovery. The important discovery, that bones 

 were an excellent manure, was made about the year 1766, by An- 

 thony St Leger, Esq. a gentleman in Yorkshire, who had employed 

 himself, for a great number of years, in a long course of speculative 

 and practical agriculture, and more especially in making experiments 

 with almost every species of manure f . Dr Darwin mentions it in 

 his celebrated work on agriculture, " The Phytologia J." It is like- 

 wise briefly noticed in Sir Humphry Davy's lectures . But it was not 

 until the year 1828, that it attracted much public attention, when, by the 

 exertions of an active and public-spirited body, (the Doncaster Agri- 



* The importation of bones ought to be encouraged by a public bounty, and 

 some allowance given to the captains of vessels, who bring bones as ballast in 

 their ships. 



f The first account of this manure, was published in Dr Hunter's Georgi- 

 cal Essays, vol. ii. p. 93. 



J Sec Sect. JO. 5. 5. $ Page 252. 



