98 



USE OF BONE MANURE. 



heap upon any convenient floor, and pour a portion of 

 the acid upon them. After standing half a day, the 

 heap should be thoroughly mixed, and a little more 

 acid added; this to be continued so long as necessary. 

 It is a method which I have known to prove very 

 successful. 



In either case the bones will ultimately soften and 

 dissolve to a kind of paste; this may be mixed with 

 twenty or thirty times its bulk of water, and applied 

 to the land by means of an ordinary water cart. Used 

 in this way, it produces a wonderful eflect upon nearly 

 all crops. 



A more convenient method in most cases is to 

 thoroughly mix the pasty mass of dissolved bones with 

 a large quantity of ashes, peat earth, sawdust or char- 

 coal dust. It can then be sown by hand, or dropped 

 from a drill machine. Two or three bushels of these 

 dissolved bones, with half the usual quantity of yard 

 manure, are sufficient for an acre. This is therefore 

 an exceedingly powerful fertilizer. One reason for its 

 remarkable effect is, that the bones are by dissolving 

 brought into a state of such minute division that they 

 are easily and at once available for the plant. A 

 peculiar phosphate of lime is formed, called by che- 

 mists a superphosphate, which is very soluble; and in 

 addition to this we have the sulphuric acid, of itself 

 an excellent application to most soils. 



Bones are useful in nearly every district, and are 

 peculiarly adapted to all, or at least to most of those 

 situations, where the land, without heavy manuring, 

 no longer bears good wheat, or Indian corn, or other 

 grains. In a great majority of cases, where land is 

 run down by grain cropping, the use of bones in some 

 of the forms above mentioned, is of all things the 

 most likely to meet the deficiency. It will be remem- 

 bered that the ash of grain is peculiarly rich in phos- 

 phates; consequently, as grain is generally sold off, 



