

HOW TO HANDLE BONES 



Home-made Bone Manures. Much good bone manure can be 

 made by collecting bones, heads, horns, feet, etc., from butchers' 

 shops or elsewhere. How to make such material available, by 

 simple proceedings, is described by Prof. Hilgard as follows : 



1. Bones put into a well-kept (moistened) manure pile will themselves 

 gradually decay and disappear, enriching the manure to that extent. 



2. Raw bones may be bodily buried in the soil around the trees; if placed 

 at a sufficient depth, beyond the reach of the summer's heat and drouth and 

 cultivating tools, the rootlets will cluster around each piece, and, in course 

 of a few years, consume it entirely. 



3. Bones may be packed in moist wood ashes, best mixed with a little 

 quick-lime, the mass kept moist but never dripping. In a few months the 

 hardest bones will be reduced to a fine mush, which is as effectual as super- 

 phosphate. Concentrated lye and soil may be used instead of ashes. In this 

 process the nitrogen of the bones is lost, going off in the form of ammonia, 

 the odor of which is very perceptible in the tank used. 



For neither of these processes should the bones be burned. The burning 

 of bones is an unqualified detriment to their effectiveness, which can only be 

 undone by the use of sulphuric acid. 



4. Bones steamed for three or four hours in a boiler under a pressure of 

 thirty-five to fifty pounds, can, after drying, be readily 'crushed in an ordinary 

 barley-crushing mill, and thus be rendered more convenient for use. Practi- 

 cally, very little of the nitrogen (glue) of the bones need be thus lost. 



POTASH 



Though, as already stated, potash is commonly in good supply 

 in California soils, it is very clear from experience that additions 

 of potash, perhaps in more available form, are advisable. The 

 fruit analyses already given show that the use of this substance 

 by fruit trees and vines is very large. Recent experiments also 

 show that potash ministers directly to the quality of the fruit in 

 some cases. Ashes from wood fires are the most available source 

 of potash, but it is a mistake to regard wood ashes as valuable 

 only for their potash contents. Professor Storer has found by 

 analysis of a number of samples of house ashes, that selected sam- 

 ples contain 8J/2 per cent of real potash, and 2 per cent of phos- 

 phoric acid, or say 4^/2 pounds of potash and one pound of phos- 

 phoric per bushel. Hence there is enough potash and phosphoric 

 acid to make a bushel of ashes worth twenty or twenty-five cents, 

 and besides that, some ten or fifteen cents additional may be 

 allowed for the "alkali power" of the ashes, i. c., the force of 

 alkalinity which enables ashes to rot weeds and to ferment peat. 



These facts suggest to the fruit grower that he should carefully 

 preserve all home-made wood ashes and apply them to the soil 

 at once, or, if stored for future application, be sure that they are 

 kept dry. Leached ashes from the lye barrel, or ashes from 

 open piles, leached by rains, are hardly worth handling. Coal 

 ashes are almost devoid of fertilizing properties, though, if finely 

 divided, as in the case of coals burning completely, their use is 



