60 FERTILIZERS. 



Professor Stockhardt, the celebrated Saxon agricultural 

 chemist, gives the following process : " From a mixture 

 of sifted wood or coal ashes and earth thrown upon a 

 barn or shed floor, form a circular wall so as to enclose 

 a pit capable of containing one hundred weight of ground 

 bone ; then make the surrounding wall of ashes so firm 

 as not to yield by being trodden on ; sift off the finer 

 part of the bone, and set it aside ; throw the coarser part 

 into the cavity, and sprinkle it, during continued stirring, 

 with three quarts of water, until the whole is uniformly 

 moistened ; add gradually eleven pounds of oil of vitriol 

 of sixty-six degrees, the -agitation with the shovel being 

 continued. A brisk effervescence of the mass will ensue, 

 which will not, however, rise above the margin of the pit 

 if the acid is poured on in separate small quantities. After 

 twenty-four hours, sprinkle again with three quarts of 

 water, add the same quantity of sulphuric acid as before, 

 with the same brisk shovelling of the mass, and leave the 

 substances to act for another twenty-four hours upon each 

 other. Then intermix the fine bone previously sifted off, 

 and finally shovel the ashes and the earth of the pit into 

 the decomposed bone, until they are all uniformly mixed 

 together." 



It will be noted, that the two last processes use ^alf 

 or less than half the usual quantity of acid allowed for a 

 hundred pounds of bone. This is economy ; for though, 

 by using more acid, we add to the weight of the mass, 

 still, all that is used over and above what is necessary to 

 make soluble the phosphoric acid in the bone, merely 

 increases the quantity of plaster present, at a cost of about 

 $28 per ton for the same, which is four times the mar- 

 ket price. From the small quantity of acid used, I infer 

 that it is assumed that the finest grade of bone is available 

 for plant-food, with but little help from the sulphuric acid. 



