FERTILIZERS. 247 



•which in itself is a valuable addition, and which, if no other substance is employed, will 

 produce favorable effects upon the growing vegetable. 



Bone dust is not restricted, in its application, to the cereals ; it may be applied advanta- 

 geously to pasture lands. When it is known that milk is rich in phosphates, and where it is 

 converted into butter and cheese, and sold to customers at a distance, it is evident that the 

 pasture lands are in a state of gradual exhaustion, and hence will require a replacement of the 

 substances which are being lost ; hence, as bone dust supplies just what is lost to the land in 

 the milk, it is evident tliat bone dust is just what is wanted to restore the lands to their wonted 

 fertility. In England, Johkston states that pasture lands have been benefited by sowing from 

 thirty to thirty-five hundred weight per acre ; and that the return for this outlay, which costs 

 about j£10, has raised the value of those lands from 10*. to 40s. per acre. The increased value 

 remains after the lapse of twenty years ; though a diminution of profit begins to appear, they 

 are still worth from two to three times the rent paid before the bones were laid on. 



Considering the prolonged effect of phosphate of lime, it is evident that it is a cheap fer- 

 tilizer. In the vicinity of New-York, Albany, Rochester, Buffalo, and other towns in New- 

 York and New-England, where milk is largely consumed, it is evident that, without conside- 

 rable expense, the lands must deteriorate in richness by the milk alone which is consumed. 

 Every forty gallons of milk contain one pound of phosphate. In the average yield of milk for 

 one cow, per annum, there will be carried off phosphates which are equivalent to thirty pounds 

 of bone dust. There is still to be reckoned the consumption of other matters ; and Johnston 

 estimates the loss to a dairy farm, per annum, about fifty-six pounds of bone dust in all. A 

 farm continued in dairy for twenty-five years, and which is stocked with forty cows, will re- 

 move in that period a large amount of the most essential and expensive material. Pasture 

 lands, therefore, which are fed for many years, will show the losses they have sustained, by the 

 appearance of poorer kinds of grass, moss, loss of vegetation in may places. That bone dust, 

 or the phosphates, applied in some form or other, will restore greenness and fertility, need not be 

 doubted for one moment. A spontaneous indication of this truth is furnished very frequently 

 in small areas called fairy rings, which owe their peculiar verdure to the decomposition of 

 fungi, which have grown and decayed upon these places. Those fungi are rich in phosphates, 

 which they have brought from the subsoil to the surface, or they have deposited the very ma- 

 terial which is indicated and required for the pasture, generally. There will be economy in 

 the procedure. This assertion rests on the fact, that in proportion as the feed deteriorates, so 

 will the milk, and hence, milk which is produced by well led and thriving cows yields a greater 

 profit in butter and cheese. 



There is a saving in the application of bone, or the phosphates of lime in their natural state, 

 in the expense which would accrue, if it was attempted to use the bulky and heavy yard ma- 

 nure, where the lands were situated at a distance from the stables. There is another fact of 

 importance, which should not be lost sight of; the addition of the phosphates will always be 

 a<lvantageous, and is not, like other fertilizers, liable to dissipation and loss. They may not 

 exhibit visible effects at, or soon after application ; and hence, for this cause, the expenditure 



