THE BONE-BLACfK QUESTION. 229 



say that the bone-black and refuse of the sugar manufactory 

 had proved of no value agriculturally. After he left the hall, 

 President Clark was understood to say that chemically they 

 were considered of value. Mr. Brown would like to say one 

 word upon the matter in order to explain it. 



Mr. Brown. I do not wish to be wise above knowledge. I 

 have no personal knowledge of the use of what is called bone- 

 black. What I stated, I thought I stated guardedly. What I 

 stated was what other people have stated to me, and if anybody 

 inquires who stated these things to me, I have no objection to 

 giving the names. I do not know that any person who manu- 

 factures superphosphate ever uses any foreign article of that 

 kind. I never used a pound of sugar waste in my life. I only 

 tell what was told to me. How is bone-black made ? The 

 bones are put into an iron retort, holding two or three l)arrels, 

 which is covered with a tightly-fitting iron cover, and let down 

 into a furnace. In a few moments, the whole becomes red-hot — 

 the iron retort and bones themselves. In this way, all the oily 

 matter is driven out of the bones, and passes off through pipes 

 into another part of the building. After the bones are suf- 

 ficiently heated in that way, the retort is hoisted out of the 

 furnace and set away to cool, with the cover still fastened. 

 When the bones are sufficiently cooled, they are passed into the 

 mill and ground. All these processes I have seen myself, and 

 that is the bone-black that goes to the sugar refiner. Now, if 

 you took bone-black in that state and used it, I have no doubt it 

 would have a fertilizing power, but when it has passed through 

 the sugar refinery, it is another article. Whatever of value it 

 has is used up in the process, and there is no fertilizing power 

 about it. I should think there might be some fertilizing matter 

 in the waste of the sugar itself, but that does not seem to be so, 

 because it not only adds nothing to the fertilizing power of the 

 bone-black, but destroys whatever it had originally. 



FIELD CULTURE OF ROOTS AND VEGETABLES. 



BY J. J. H. GREGORY. 



My Farmer Friends : — I propose rather to talk to you in a 

 familiar way, than to deliver a lecture. The subject is " Field 

 culture of roots and vegetables." Tiiis comes mostly under the 

 head of market farming, and I shall include under it in my 



