AMERICAN INSTITUTE. 439 



requirements of vegetation, and probably no water in the world 

 contains so small a quantity. 



Last year I was desirous of increasing the bones of several 

 calves, and not having sulphuric acid at hand to dissolve bones 

 for that purpose, I tried an experiment with lime water that 

 proved to be perfectly effectual. The bones were placed in a 

 large iron kettle filled with slacked lime in solution, and boiled 

 for four hours, reducing them to a powder, which Avas used with 

 irrigating water on grass land from which the calves fed, adding 

 to it the necessary phosphate of lime. 



There are several kinds of irrigation, by filtration, regurgita- 

 tion, submersion and catch meadow; that adopted for pasture and 

 arable lands is by filtration, when water is spread thinly over the 

 soil and allowed to filtrate through it; by submersion, when water 

 is permitted to remain on land for some time, and by regurgita- 

 tion when the drains are stopped at their mouths and the water 

 allowed to rise to the surface. I have twenty-three acres that can 

 be so treated. The catch water irrigation is where gutters are 

 arranged along natural slopes, and the water falls from the upper 

 one to that below it, which spreads it again lower down, and so 

 on until it reaches the bottom. I have twelve acres so controlled. 



I find the vegetation on lands I have irrigated with simple 

 water has tissues of a soft and spongy nature with very tender 

 stem^s and thick green leaves, presenting a luxuriant appearance 

 beautiful to look at. Cattle prefer and greedily cat the herbage 

 so treated. 



American farmers have too long only considered that substance 

 a manure which they can place in a wagon with a fork; but they 

 will, before long, come to the conclusion that it is then only in 

 the first stage of preparation, and unfit for agricultural purposes 

 until it can be placed i;:i a hogshead instead of a cart. If he uses 

 liquids at all, he only considers that valuable which is as black 

 as ink and as strong as lye, whereas it is only fit for use when 

 weak, transparent and almost devoid of odour. I have expe- 

 rienced the following advantages by irrigating with liquid 

 manure : 



1. It is amazingly prompt in its action, produces rapid growth 

 and is particularly advantageous to all cruciferous, leguminous and 

 cereal plants. 



2. When placed upon the soil it passes directly into it, and 

 unlike solid manure that requires from one to three years to bring 

 its entire force into agricultural action, produces a return in a lew 

 weeks by quadrupling the crops. 



