150 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



ter in it. He put that into a compost-heap, and mixed with 

 it two hundred pounds of the superphosphate of lime which 

 I have described to you to-day. The next spring, he thought 

 he had a manure there that would raise rye, corn, oats, or 

 whatever he wanted, on his gravelly soil. He spread it on, 

 ploughed it under, harrowed the land well (for whatever he 

 does, he does well) , and the crops repaid hmi abundantly. He 

 has been working in tliat way. There were potash salts in 

 that gravelly land, but he could not get them, the rain would 

 go down through and carry them off. So he went to work 

 and put vegetable matter into his soil, to hold his manure, 

 and then his crops grew ; and I can show any man who will 

 go down to Providence with me, as good a farm, out on old 

 Seekonk Plains, as he would desire to look at, which has been 

 artificially made to a large extent. 



Now, to go back to the superphosphates a little. As this 

 young gentleman has given me a fair opening by telling us 

 what he is selling, I will tell you, as fairly, plainly and 

 honestly as he has, how we make our goods, and leave you 

 to judge for yourselves. The bones which we use are the 

 refuse bones from a mill, which we use for another purpose. 

 The bones are put into a retort, and burned in an open fire, 

 thereby freeing all the ammonia. When the bones are taken 

 from the retort, they are ground. They are then a white 

 mass. They are then treated with sulphuric acid, enough to 

 liberate the phosphoric acid, which we want for another pur- 

 pose entirely. That is leached out, until there is only 41- 

 per cent, of phosphoric acid left in the mass. It is then 

 shovelled out and put one side. We also manufacture bone- 

 coal, which gas and sugar refiners use, and about Avhich we 

 have heard a great deal said by this party and the other as to 

 its not being good for anything. I will speak of that directly. 

 In the manufacture of bone-coal, when the bones come out 

 from the tight retort, which holds about six bushels, more or 

 less, they come out in the same form in which they were put 

 in, but entirely blackened. It is bone-charcoal ; nothing 

 more nor less. It then goes into the cracker, and is cracked 

 into five sizes, which are sorted out into their various grades. 

 Below that cracker, gentlemen, recollect we have a large 

 amount of bone-charcoal dust. Now, what is that? It con- 



