158 Potash Fertiltzers. 
transformed into superphosphates, and, with nitrogenous matter 
added, serve as good applications both for growth and fruiting. 
Home-made Bone Manures—Much good bone manure can 
be made by collecting bones, heads, horns, feet, etc., from 
butchers’ shops or elsewhere. How to make such material avail- 
able, by simple proceedings, is described by Professor Hilgard 
as follows:— 
1. Bones put into a well-kept (moistened) manure pile will themselves 
gradually decay and disappear, enriching the manure to that extent. 
2. Raw bones may be bodily buried in the soil around the trees; if 
placed at a sufficient depth, beyond the reach of the summer’s heat and 
drouth and cultivating tools, the rootlets will cluster around each piece, 
and, in course of a few years, consume it entirely. 
3. Bones may be packed in moist wood ashes, best mixed with a little 
quick-lime, the mass kept moist but never dripping. In afew months the 
hardest bones will be reduced to a fine mush, which is as effectual as super- 
phosphate. Concentrated lye and soil may be used instead of ashes. In 
this process the nitrogen of the bones is lost, going off in the form of 
ammonia, the odor of which is very perceptible in the tank used. 
For neither of these processes should the bones be burned. The burn- 
ing of bones is an unqualified detriment to their effectiveness, which can 
only be undone by the use of sulphuric acid. 
4. Bones steamed for three or four hours in a boiler under a pressure 
of thirty-five to fifty pounds, can, after drying, be readily crushed in an 
ordinary barley-crushing mill, and thus be rendered more convenient for 
use. Practically, very little of the nitrogen (glue) of the bones need be thus 
lost. 
POTASH. 
Though, as already stated, potash is commonly in good sup- 
ply in California soils, it is very desirable to guard supplies well, 
because, as the fruit analyses already given show, the use of 
this substance by fruit trees and vines is very large. Recent ex- 
periments also show that potash ministers directly to the quality 
of the fruit in some cases. Ashes from wood fires are the most 
available source of potash, but it is a mistake to regard wood 
ashes as valuable only for their potash contents. Professor 
Storer has found by analysis of a number of samples of house 
ashes, that selected samples contain 8% per cent of real potash, 
and 2 per cent of phosphoric acid, or say 4% pounds of potash 
and one pound of phosphoric per bushel. Hence there is enough 
potash and phosphoric acid to make a bushel of ashes worth 
twenty or twenty-five cents, and besides that, some ten or fifteen 
cents additional may be allowed for the “alkali power” of the 
ashes, 1. e., the force of alkalinity which enables ashes to rot 
weeds and to ferment peat. 
These facts suggest to the fruit grower that he should care- 
fully preserve all home-made wood ashes and apply them to the 
soil at once, or, if stored for future application, be sure that they 
are kept dry. Leached ashes from the lye barrel, or ashes from 
