FliOCEEDlNGS OF THE FaRMEES' ClUIJ. ^ \\) 



The two cities of New York and Philadelpliia alone, tlioron<^lil_Y 

 gleaned, can furnish all the bones that are ground in this country. 

 Nineteen tons are tlirown away where one is converted into manure. 

 Are these bones useless to the farmer unless he can sell them to the 

 bone-grinder? Uncrushed and without the application of strong- 

 solvents, a bone does about as much good as a stone. It dissolves so 

 slowly and its fertilizing properties are so much in .spots, so little 

 divided and blended with the soil, that a farmer might as well let hts 

 bones be kicked into fence-corners as to us© them whole. There are 

 three ways in which these tough magazines of plant-food can be made 

 useful. 



First Treatment. — Collect all the bones you can, a cart-load if possi- 

 ble, break them with a sledge-hammer, and pile them in layers with 

 fresh horse-manure in a pit. Let them sweat a number of mon-ths in 

 an active fermentation, the dung being moistened now and then with 

 warm soap-suds. At the end of the fermeiit or decomposition they 

 will be found much softened, and will crush quite line on a flat rock 

 under the head of an old ax. 



Second Treatment. — Put the bones in a hogshead or a big old gum 

 with tight bottom. The bottom can be made tight by clay well ram- 

 med down. Throw in a bushel of strong unleached ashes made mostly 

 from hickory, elm, beech, or sound young oak. Pine ashes have no 

 strength. Put in a layer of bones, and over them ashes till they are 

 covered, ramming down to make all snug. When the gum is full, 

 moisten with soap-suds, keep them in a warm place, as the cellar, in 

 winter, and use enough suds every woek to keep the moisture about 

 the same. If a strong smell escapes, cover the surface two or three 

 inches deep with plaster. After some months' soak, moat of the 

 bones will be found soft enough to crush line with an ax-head. 



Third Treatment. — Buy a carboy of sulphuric acid. You ought 

 to get it for about three cents a pound. The manufacturer makes a 

 fair profit when he sells at two. Pour a common pail five times full 

 of rain-water into a tight wooden vessel — a dug-out is the best. Add 

 a pailful of the acid, then five pails of water, another of acid, and so 

 on. If you get a drop of the acid on your hands the burning will be 

 quenched by plunging at once into water. Fix a dishiug-place, and 

 make it firm with clay. Compost the crushed bones with muck or 

 rotted turf, throwing on enough of the dilute acid to make the pile 

 quite muddy. In two or three weeks dig over, adding more acid. 

 This will reduce most of the bones to a condition in which plants can 



