MANURES. 27 



times its weight of water. The acid thus diluted should 

 only be sprinkled on them a little at a time, until the bones 

 become a soft, pasty mass, which can be mixed with dry 

 peat or earth, and then used as a manure. 



lione-dust or finely ground bone is sold commercially by 

 persons who have mills made purposely for the purpose of 

 crashing and grinding them. The crushed bones are 

 generally about half an inch long, mixed with the powder 

 or dust of the bones resulting from crushing them. The 

 bone-dust or meal is the bones reduced to a powder resem- 

 bling Indian meal. This latter is best adapted for gar- 

 dening purposes, as it produces more immediate effects 

 upon the crops. Crushed bones and bone-dust will fer- 

 ment if thrown into a heap and moistened; hence, in order 

 to the more evenly distribute them on the land, and to 

 make them produce a more immediate or quicker effect, 

 they may be composted with moist earth for two or three 

 weeks before using. When used for cabbage, cauliflowers, 

 turnips and plants of the same family, some cultivators 

 add sulphur to the bone-dust in the proportion of seven 

 pounds of flour of sulphur to one hundred pounds of bone- 

 dust, previous to fermenting it. The mass will give off 

 strong fumes of sulphur, and when applied to the soil keeps 

 off the attacks of the turnip-fly. We also think that the 

 sulphur acts as a special manure to plants of the kind 

 indicated, as they all contain sulphur in their composition, 

 as is evidenced in the sulphureted-hydrogen gas which 

 they throw off when in a state of decay, or in their effect 

 of tarnishing silver when brought in contact with them. 



Horn shavings are similar in their character and action 

 to bones; they should be mixed with five or six times 

 their bulk of earth, and allowed to ferment five or six weeks 

 before using. They make a most excellent manure for 



