Notices. — England. 333 



Art. II. Domestic Notices. 



ENGLAND. 



Improvement in Paving. A pamphlet has recently been published by 

 Colonel Macirone, entitled, " Hints to Paviors," which well deserves the 

 attention of every one who has any thing to do with rural architecture, or 

 the public ways in towns. Colonel M.'s improvement consists in em- 

 ploying pressure in the three different stages of paving : " First, to harden 

 the ground previously to laying the stones ; secondly, to fix and depress 

 them when laid ; and, thirdly, to equalize and perfect a pavement after it has 

 been some time in use, by applying the pressure only on the protuberant 

 parts." The machine proposed to be employed is similar to a pile-driver, 

 fixed to a horizontal frame with wheels, so that it may be easily drawn 

 along any pavement, and employed to beat down protuberant stones. 



Bones for Manure. Three large steam-mills and one horse-mill have 

 lately been erected in the neighbourhood of Lincoln for grinding bones for 

 agricultural purposes. The use of bones as manure is greatly increasing 

 in Lincolnshire, Yorkshire, and several adjoining counties ; and the same 

 manure has lately been extensively employed in East Lothian, where it 

 was first introduced about -30 years ago, by Mr. Sherrief, of Captain Head, 

 who had rollers for grinding them attached to his thrashing-machine. Im- 

 mense loads of bones are brought into the port of Hull by the Dutch. 

 The bones so brought appear highly desiccated ; but as they are not white, 

 as if bleached, it is more than probable that they are carefully collected 

 from the fields of warfare. At the re-embarking of the British troops at 

 the retreat of Corunna, it will be recollected that the cavalry horses were 

 dispatched in ranks, to prevent their falling into the hands of the Freneh ; 

 and it is probable that from such sources as these some of the prodigious 

 supplies of bones of horses are procured. 



The following letter conveys valuable information to those who may be 

 desirous of employing this excellent manure. 



" Sir, Louth, 20th April, 1826. 



" I thank you for, &c, and hasten to communicate in return the inform- 

 ation I can gather here relative to your enquiries about ground bones. 

 What may be the quantity ground, or capable of being ground, at Lincoln, 

 I know not ; but I am told it is not greater than the quantity ground in this 

 town, where there are two bone-mills, one worked by water, the other by 

 steam. The navigation from Louth to the sea is much shorter and much 

 cheaper than it is from Lincoln ; and Mr. Nell, of this place, the owner of 

 the steam-engine, says he could deliver a cargo of ground bones at any place 

 on the eastern side of London-bridge at 2s. 6d. per bushel, which price 

 would include the freight and every other charge. Mr. Nell's mill grinds 

 half-inch bones, and the bone-dust, which, he says, makes a difference of 

 nearly a stone in the weight of every bushel, compared with those from which 

 the dust is sifted out, as is sometimes done, is included in his measure. A 

 cargo for our small sloops would contain about 2500 bushels, which is about 

 the quantity used every year by the farmers in general in this neighbour- 

 hood for their turnip land ; though we have one large farmer, Mr. Dawson, 

 of Withcall, who, I understand, uses not less than 12,000 bushels every 

 year. His farm is situate in what are called the Wolds, the hills, of Lin- 

 colnshire, where the soil is, for the most part, very shallow, stony, and 

 acrid, and requires twenty bushels to the acre, though tolerable soil does not 

 require more than fifteen, nor good soil more than ten. This manure is 

 becoming the most common one used in this county, where, indeed, the 

 Wold farmers cannot depend, with any degree of certainty, upon their 

 turnip crops, without the application of ground bones. If the gentleman 



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