FERTILIZERS. 265 



asmuch as sulphuric acid itself is a fertilizer. More or less than one half of acid to bone may 

 be used, according to the views of the experimenter ; if less, the action of the undissolved bone 

 will be prolonged. The mixture may stand for many days. The plan to be pursued will 

 now be varied according to the intention of the farmer : if it is designed to be drilled in, it 

 will require the addition of fine peat, or light friable soil, when it may be laid up and turned 

 several times in the course of seven or eight weeks. During this time the bones heat and dry 

 up, so as to be ready for the drill. If, on the contrary, it is' designed to use the mixture in a 

 liquid state, from fifty to one hundred times more water must be added, in the place of the 

 porous earth or peat, when, after complete solution, it may be distributed over the field, in a 

 water cart. Still more water should be used, provided the application is to be upon young 

 and slender grass of meadows, or young wheat and other cereals. The objection to the last 

 mode is its trouble, for, after all, there are many farmers who are deterred more from improve- 

 ments of this kind, for the trouble it gives them ; there is nothing so desirable with them as 

 the old way of doing things, for which they are prepared. The solution is the most perfect 

 way of applying bone manure. When the effects of this mode of application are compared 

 with guano, it is found that two and a half bushels are equal in effect to two hundred weight 

 of Peruvian guano. See Johnston's Contributions to Scientific Agriculture, page 43. Prof. 

 Johnston also gives a comparative result of the use of superphosphate of lime upon turnips, 

 page 46. 



No dressing gave 29i bushels per imperial acre. 



3^ cwt. of Peruvian guano, 40| " " 



4 cwt. rape dust, 38f " " 



6i cwt. of superphosphate, -53f " " 



I believe it unnecessary to proceed farther with a statement of the value of bone in agricul- 

 ture, as the subject has already been treated of: it is one of considerable importance now, and 

 will become still more so, in the progress of agriculture in this country. Correct views are 

 beginning to be entertained, in regard to a productive husbandry. It is already found, in some 

 quarters, that high culture gives the most profitable returns for capital invested in agriculture. 



One suggestion may be thrown out here ; do not the pasture lands, which have been devoted 

 to sheep and dairy farming, require more attention than they have hitherto received 1 If the 

 amount of butter and cheese, or of wool, is estimated fairly, it will be found that much nitro- 

 genous, as well as inorganic matter, has been removed from pasture lands, in the course of 

 twenty or twenty-five years. Pastures which were capable of keeping 5 or 600 sheep, have, 

 in some instances, so far deteriorated in New-England, that only about one half as many can 

 now be kept. This result must undoubtedly be owing to the phosphates which have been re- 

 moved in the grass. In order, therefore, to bring them back to their original fertility, bone 

 dust, or the mineral phosphates, are required : no other substance can supply its place. 

 Farmers, however, in this country, scarcely think of renovating their pasture lands by the di- 

 [Agricultural Report — Vol. in.] 34 



