168 A PRACTICAL TREATISE 



of nutritive matter, may therefore be considered inappreciable. 

 It has been stated as the comparative result of some experi- 

 ments, that bone-dust acts in the cultivation of grain, as com- 

 pared to the best stable manure, in the following proportions : 

 namely, 



In respect to the quality of the corn, as 7 to 5. 



In respect to the quantity, as 5 to 4. 



In respect to tlie durability of its effects on the soil, as 3 to 2. 



We cannot indeed agree altogether in this estimate of its 

 powers, but it requires no further arguments to press its appli- 

 cation upon the attention of every farmer, who is in possession 

 of ground to which it is suitable. We shall, therefore, only 

 add the following summary of the rules for its application, as 

 recommended by the members of the Doncaster Agricultural 

 Association, from which it appears — 



That on dry sands, limestone, chalk, light loams, and peat, 

 bones are a very highly valuable manure. 



That they may be applied to grass with great good effect. 



That on arable lands, they may be laid on fallow for turnips, 

 or used for any of the subsequent crops. 



That the best method of using them, when broadcast, is 

 previously to mix them up in a compost with earth, dung, or 

 other manures, and let them lie to ferment. 



That if used alone, they may be either drilled with the seed, 

 or sown broadcast. 



That bones which have undergone the process of fermenta- 

 tion are decidedly superior (in their immediate effects) to tliose 

 which have not done so. 



That the quantity should be about 20 bushels of dust, or 40 

 bushels of large, increasing the quantity if the land be im- 

 poverished: and also, according to our opinion, if the bones 

 have been already manufactured. 



That upon clays and heavy loams, it does not yet appear 

 that bones will answer. 



On this latter observation, however, a farmer near Nantwich, 

 in Cheshire, remarks, that he occupies a farm in the township 

 of Pickmore, the soil of which is a clay loam, scarcely twelve 

 inches deep, the sub-soil a gray sand, mixed with coarse clay : 

 which the farmers call rammel — on a bed of good clay marl. 

 Two years ago, he covered the field with bone-manure; pre- 

 vious to which the grass was so sour, as not to be worth ten 

 shillings per acre ; but it is now full of most excellent herbage, 

 consisting of white clover and trefoil; to which he adds, that 



