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NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



June 



USE OF BONES AS A FERTILIZER. 



We recently published an inquiry in relation to 

 the use of bones ; since which we have found the 

 following reply to a similar inquiry, in the last 

 number of the Mark-Lane Express, which we 

 copy in the belief that it will be perused with in- 

 terest by all our reflecting readers : 



A correspondent asks for some information re- 

 specting bone manure. This is universally con- 

 sidered one of the best kinds of manure that can 

 be applied to the land, whether for corn, grass or 

 root crops, and its extensive and increasing use 

 is a proof of the estimation in which it is held. 

 Not only are the bones of those animals slaugh- 

 tered in this country employed as manure, but 

 nearly 80,000 tons per annum are imported from 

 foreign countries, chiefly for the same purpose, 

 and yet the supply is by no means equal to the 

 demand. Had not the importation of guano com- 

 menced about the year 1840, it is probable that 

 bones would have risen to £10 or £12 per ton. 



"That bones must be beneficial as manure," 

 says Mr. Nesbit in his pamphlet on Agricultural 

 Chemistry, "will appear from a very simple con- 

 sideration. Animals are fed upon vegetables, and 

 the whole of their bodily structure grows out of 

 the food, or is eliminated and formed from it. 

 If the food did not contain phosphate of lime, 

 the bony structure of the body could not be built 

 up. If the soil in which vegetables grow did not 

 contain phosphate of lime, the seeds of vegeta- 

 bles could not be matured. Supposing the ara- 

 ble land of this country to have been robbed for 

 a thousand years of phosphate of lime, and never 

 to have received any back again ; assuming this 

 ingredient to have been continually exported in 

 the shape of milk, cheese, sheep and oxen, it is 

 clear that unless the land had an unlimited amount 

 of phosphate, which we know is not the case, 

 there must have been a proportionate diminution 

 in the quantity of such materials. Hence it is 

 that when certain substances which had been tak- 

 en out for a long period, have been again sud- 

 denly applied, land worth hardly 5s. per acre has 

 sprung up to the value of 15s., and there has 

 been an enormous increase of crops." 



One of the most valuable qualities of bones is 

 the slowness with which they decompose, and the 

 length of time during which they continue to 

 give out the phosphates. It is found upon anal- 

 ysis that one pound of bones contains as much 

 phosphoric acid as 28 pounds of wheat, or 250 

 pounds of potatoes. Now, a crop of wheat of 

 four quarters per acre, and reckoning it at 60 lbs. 

 per bushel, weighs, in round numbers, 2000 lbs., 

 which contains only as much phosphate as is 

 found in 71 lbs. of bones. It is clear, therefore, 

 that if the bones are put on at the rate of 3^ cwt. 

 per acre, supposing them to decompose rapidly 

 and give out the phosphates in proportion, a large 

 proportion would be wasted. But that this is not 

 the case, the following circumstances prove : A 

 gentleman, who occupied a large farm in Norfolk, 

 finding towards the close of his wheat-sowing, 

 that he was likely to have a considerable quantity 

 of bone-dust left, if he continued distributing it 

 at the ordinary rate, directed his foreman to in- 

 crease the quantity. On going to the field the 

 following day, he found that the man had doubled 



the allowance, and that instead of having any to 

 spare, he would not, at that rate, have enough to 

 finish manuring the remaining seeding land. He 

 therefore told him to go back to the usual quan- 

 tity of abrfut 4 cwt. per acre, at which rate the 

 field was finished. The crop of wheat proved a 

 very heavy one, as well as the succeeding crop of 

 turnips, on that part of the land which was thus 

 double dosed with bone dust. Now mark what 

 follows. Eleven years after, the farmer on rid- 

 ing with a friend over his land, came to this field, 

 which was again, for the third time after the above 

 occurrence, under wheat. On entering it, he re- 

 quested his friend, if he should, in riding down 

 the furrow, find any diff'erence in the growth of 

 the wheat, to point it out. After riding a few 

 yards into the wheat he suddenly stopped. "What 

 in all the world have you been after here,?"* he 

 exclaimed. "This wheat is six inches higher, and 

 as stout again as the rest ; how came this to pass ?" 

 The farmer then explained to him the occurrence 

 we have related, and which proves not only the 

 value of bones as a manure for a single crop, but 

 that by the deliberate manner in which they give 

 out the phosphates in decomposition, the) pos- 

 sess a more permanent value than any other kind 

 of manure. — Country Gentleman. 



For the New England Farmer. 



TWELVE-ROWED vs. EIGHT-ROWED 

 CORN. 



Mr. Editor : — In a late number of your paper 

 I find some remark of "A Farmer and Millei-" in 

 relation to eight-rowed corn being preferable to 

 twelve-rowed, on account of'drying better, and its 

 greater value as fodder. I beg leave to say that 

 I defy the world to produce a better variety of 

 corn than I raise, heavier, finer fodder, or that 

 produces better on common upland, or, in fact, 

 earlier than this twelve-rowed corn. Hence it 

 follows that the number of rows in a variety of 

 corn has nothing to do with the real merit of that 

 variety. 



There are many things highly recommended in 

 the public prints that will not answer for every 

 latitude and locality. A neighbor of mine raises 

 the far-famed King Philip corn with no success 

 at all. Though recommended for being early, it 

 is altogether too late for this county. This, and 

 an eight-rowed sort, is bound to mould at all 

 events. The Lawton blackberry will not stand our 

 winters, and notwithstanding the high encomiums 

 lavished upon it, it is worthless in this climate. 



In reply to a suggestion made some weeks since 

 through your paper, about distributing corn in 

 the hill, I will say that I use one of Dana's hand 

 planters, which chucks it in about two inches 

 deep at one stroke. This machine leaves the corn 

 in a line four inches long in each hill. As the 

 corn grows it, diverges sufficiently to give it plen- 

 ty of room. In this way it is much less work to 

 hoe it, and in my humble opinion the corn is 

 evener and produces a better crop than when it is 

 distributed in a square of eight or ten inches 

 about the hill. Thomas S. Fletcher. 



Beading, Windsor Co., Vt., April 8, 1861. 



A punctual man can always find leisure, a neg- 

 ligent one never. 



