158 A PRACTICAL TREATISE 



CHAPTER XI. 



MISCELLANEOUS MANURES (CONTINUED.) — BONES. 



Bones, althoug-h of comparatively late introduction as ma- 

 nure, have yet occupied so much of farming attention within 

 these few years, that we have no hesitation in placing- them at 

 the head of those miscellaneous substances which are usually 

 employed for that purpose. They have indeed been used in 

 some parts of England for a long time, and have been ex- 

 tensively imported from the Continent into the town of Hull, 

 where several machines have been erected either for grinding 

 them into }X)wder, or bruising them into small pieces; which 

 modes of application have been found so advantageous, that 

 they have, within the last twenty years, excited general at- 

 tention, and are now in almost universal use as the principal 

 manure for raising turnip crops on the calcareous soils in 

 Yorkshire and Lincolnshire. It is upon this description of 

 land that they are the most decidedly valuable, and the testi- 

 mony of some farmers of experience proves that to mix them 

 with a portion of vegetable or coal ashes is a profitable appli- 

 cation for the production of turnips; as, by this method, the 

 vegetation of the seed is quickened, and the young plant, 

 getting rapidly into rough leaf thus escapes the fly. 



Long before the great advantage which may be derived 

 fi'om ground or well-crushed bones was generally known, 

 many persons were aware of their fertilizing properties. To 

 render them available, however, the wasteful and injurious 

 process of reducing them into ashes by fire was then com- 

 monly resorted to; by which, indeed, a certain degree of 

 benefit was imparted to land upon which sulphate of lime or 

 gypsum will have effect, but could not be so effectual, in point 

 of nourishment, as bone in an uncalcined state, because the 

 oil and other nutritive matter which it contains is thus dissi- 

 pated. In other instances, they were either reduced by lime, 

 or laid at the bottom of the farm-yard, and decomposed by the 

 effect of urine, and in some cases were partially broken by the 

 hammer. In these modes, however, great quantities were 

 wasted, which is now prevented by the improved method of 

 })reparing them by machinery; it is therefore useless to enter 

 further into the details of practice which has "become obsolete. 



When reduced to powder, the bones are ground, being 



