144 AGRICULTURE 



Of the manures at the farmer's disposal 

 containing both phosphates and nitrogen, 

 those of greatest importance are Bones in 

 their various forms of Crushed Bones, Bone 

 Meal, Steamed Bone Flour, and Vitriolated, 

 Vitriolized, or Dissolved Bones. Bones have 

 been used in one form or another for a very 

 long time, and are associated in farmers' 

 minds with a period when agriculture was 

 more prosperous than of late, and in this 

 way they have attained to a position to 

 which their intrinsic merits hardly entitle 

 them. Of recent years many experiments 

 have been conducted on the value of bones 

 in one form or other, as compared with a 

 corresponding quantity of phosphoric acid 

 and nitrogen derived from other sources 

 such as superphosphate, basic slag, nitrate 

 of soda, and sulphate of ammonia and it 

 has been found that when put to this test 

 bones do not come well out of the ordeal. 

 In their undissolved condition they are most 

 serviceable when ground to a fine powder, 

 in which form they are put on the market 

 under the terms bone meal, or bone flour. 

 Bone meal contains everything that the 

 natural bone holds, except the oils and fats, 

 which have been removed in the process of 

 boiling. Bone flour is simply another name 



