BONE-DUST AXD SUPERPHOSPHATE OF LIME. 315 



frequently contained 200 Ibs. of nitrogen per acre equal to 20 or 

 25 tons of barn-yard manure. 



"It has been supposed," said the Doctor, " that owing to the 

 removal of so much phosphoric acid in the cheese sold from the 

 farm, that the dairy pastures of Cheshire had been exhausted of 

 phosphoric acid, and that the wonderful benefits following an ap- 

 plication of bone-dust to these pastures, was due to its supplying 

 phosphoric acid." 



" I do not doubt," said I, " the value of phosphoric acid when 

 applied in connection with nitrogen to old pasture lands, but I 

 contend that the experience of the Cheshire dairymen with bone- 

 dust is no positive proof that their soils were particularly deficient 

 in phosphoric acid. There are many instances given where the 

 gelatine of the bones, alone, proved of great value to the grass. 

 And I think it will be found that the Cheshire dairymen do not find 

 as much benefit from superphosphate as they did from bone-dust. 

 And the reason is, that the latter, in addition to the phosphoric 

 acid, furnished a liberal dressing of nitrogen. Futhermore, it is 

 not true that dairying specially robs the soil of phosphoric acid. 

 Take one of these old dairy farms in Cheshire, where a dressing of 

 bone-dust, according to a writer in the Journal of the Royal Agri- 

 cultural Society, has caused ' a miserable covering of pink grass, 

 rushes, and a variety of other noxious weeds, to give place to the 

 most luxuriant herbage of wild clover, trefoil, and other succulent 

 and nutritious grasses.' It is evident from this description of the 

 pastures before the bones were used, that it would take at least 

 three acres to keep a cow for a year. 



" I have known," says the same writer quoted above, " many a 

 poor, honest, but half broken-hearted man raised from poverty to 

 comparative independence, and many a sinking family saved from 

 inevitable ruin by the help of this wonderful manure." And this 

 writer not only spoke from observation and experience, but he 

 showed his faith by his works, for he tells us that he had paid 

 nearly $50,000 for this manure. 



Now, on one of these poor dairy farms, where it required 3 acres 

 to keep a cow, and where the grass was of poor quality, it is not 

 probable that the cows produced over 250 Ibs. of cheese in a year. 

 One thousand pounds of cheese contains, on the average, about 

 45 Ibs. of nitrogen ; 2.J- Ibs. of potash, and 11 Ibs. of phosphoric 

 acid. From this it follows, if 250 Ibs. of cheese are sold annually 

 from three acres of pasture, less than one Ib. of phosphoric acid 

 per acre is exported from the farm in the cheese. 

 One ton of timothy-hay contains nearly 14J- Ibs. of phosphoric 



