426 TRANSACTIONS OF THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE. 



cultural paper for many years, in referring to me on the subject 

 of under draining, remarked : " This writer will, before long, 

 advocate underdraining dry lands, and I do not know but he 

 may advocate the under draining of a sand-hill. " I answered 

 that article by stating that I was ready at once to advocate the 

 under draining of the highest hill in America, to secure it against 

 drouth, and to present conditions by which the soil should at all 

 times be humid. Improved farming should not have "good sea- 

 sons " and " bad seassons " in its vocabularly. Rest assured the 

 farmer who experiences " good or bad luck," has not prepared his 

 farm in the best manner of which it is capable, for if treated 

 properly, it cannot offer uneven results, unless it be from insects, 

 certainly not from drouth. 



Now as to artificial manures. You are aware that I have been 

 engaged in the manufacture of fertilizers ; and, therefore, I have 

 some delicacy in speaking on the subject. However, in taking a 

 view of the leading artificial manures, I shall not be deterred 

 from giving any fact that is fairly established, and calculated to 

 be of universal benefit. 



In the first place, bones have been known for many years to 

 have very high value as manure. Their extensive use was com- 

 menced in England, where for many years they were used crushed, 

 in pieces averaging perhaps an inch long, and were called inch 

 bones. Four hundred bushels were allowed to the acre, and they 

 produced increased crops. Then the half-inch bone was intro- 

 duced, and became very popular. It was supposed that the early 

 preparations of these bones had received some chemical additions, 

 but this was not so. By using them in this finer form, the quan- 

 tity required to the acre was reduced to two hundred and fifty 

 bushels. Some one then proposed grinding them to a powder, 

 and, this being done, the quantity required per acre was reduced 

 to sixty bushels. Sixty bushels finely ground were found to be 

 equal, in efiect, to two hundred and fifty bushels of the half-inch 

 size, and equal to four hundred bushels of the inch size. Then 

 Liebig suggested, that if the phosphate of lime of the bone were 

 rendered soluble, equal efiects would be produced by ten bushels. 

 This resulted in the treatment of bones by sulphuric acid. The 

 next improvement was that, inasmuch as in some parts of the 

 world, bones were much cheaper than in others, and inasmuch as 

 the water and other evaporable material of the bone had less 

 value per pound than the prosphate of lime, they heated the 



