258 



THE GARDENER'S ASSISTANT. 



The best method of using fish in the raw 

 condition is to make them up into a compost 

 with earth, turf, and other matters; in this way 

 the manure can be more equally distributed, 

 and plants will not then be liable to injury 

 from the roots coming in contact with large 

 quantities of decomposing matters. 



Woollen Refuse and Shoddy. — These are waste 

 materials from woollen and cloth mills, and are 

 used to a certain extent in the manufacture of 

 manures. The more finely divided the material 

 the more readily will it decompose in the soil, 

 and the more evenly can it be distributed. 

 Hence, if the amount of nitrogen contained in 

 the materials were the same, shoddy or shredded 

 wool would be better for the gardener than 

 rags; and flocks, which are rags ground to fine 

 powder, would be better still. The nitrogen 

 they contain varies from 5 to 10 per cent, and 

 their manurial effects extend over two or three 

 years. 



Horns and Hoofs. — In the impure state in 

 which these are used as manure they contain 

 from 12 to 14 per cent of nitrogen, and, as they 

 decompose slowly, at least when the fragments 

 are large, they form a good fertilizer for Roses, 

 fruit-trees, and Vines. 



In order to test the value of organic nitrogen 

 as manure, experiments were made in Germany 

 by Seyffert upon Kohl-rabi; these were so ar- 

 ranged that the plants should be well fed and 

 subjected to like conditions, except that they 

 received different kinds of nitrogenous food. 

 The manurial applications and the amount of 

 crop obtained are as follows: 





Weight of 





Crop in 



Manured with 



Grammes. 



No nitrogenous fertilizer, 



76 



25 grams nitrogen in bone-meal (steamed), . 



1572 



,, dried blood, 



1654 



,, ,, horn-meal (steamed), 



2005 



,, ,, nitrate of soda, 



2608 



These results show that the nitrogen in dried 

 blood, bone and horn meal were specially favour- 

 able for the growth of plants, although not equal 

 to the same amount of nitrogen when applied 

 in the more soluble form of nitrate of soda. 



Bone Manures. — Bones, in some form or other, 

 formed almost the first artificial manure used to 

 any considerable extent in this country. For- 

 merly they were used coarsely broken or crushed 

 in the form of inch-bones, or sometimes half- 

 inch bones, but gradually it has become the 

 custom to use them more finely ground ; quarter- 

 inch bones, bone-meal, and bone-dust being now 

 the most common forms of application to the 

 soil. 



Bones are an excellent garden manure, espe- 

 cially for fruit-trees, Vines, foliage stove plants, 

 Chrysanthemums, Fuchsias, &c. They are less 

 likely than almost any other manure to waste in 

 wet seasons, particularly on sandy soils, or to 

 be wasted away by artificial waterings in pot 

 culture. On land subject to " fingers and toes " 

 or "anbury" bone manures will be found 

 preferable to superphosphates for root-crops and 

 the Cabbage family. An example of the different 

 effect of coarsely or finely ground bones is given 

 in the Journal of the Royal Agricultural Society, 

 by Hannam, who found that an experimental 

 plot dressed with finely-crushed bones produced 

 a crop of about lOf tons of Turnips, while the 

 same amount of coarsely-ground bones applied 

 to another plot of the same area yielded only 

 about 7f tons. The soils on which bones pro- 

 duce the best effect are dry ones, and more 

 especially those that are deficient in lime ; these 

 manures are considered unsuitable for wet soils. 

 Soils rich in decomposing organic matters, such 

 as leaf-moulds, are greatly enhanced in value by 

 an admixture of bone-meal. 



From determinations made by Voelcker it 

 appears there are wide variations as to solubility 

 among different kinds of bone-meal. The phos- 

 phate in meal from hard bones, even when very 

 fine, is less soluble than that from porous, 

 spongy bones. The fat of raw bones hinders 

 their solution, and their decomposition also. 

 Putrefying bone-meal is more soluble than that 

 which is fresh. Certain soluble organic matters 

 and ammonium salts that are formed during the 

 decay of bone-meal promote the solubility of 

 the phosphates that are contained in it. 



Night-soil. — Analysis shows that fresh human 

 excrements are richer in fertilizing matters than 

 those of farm animals. The food of man is 

 usually much more concentrated than that of 

 animals. It is richer in respect to nitrogen and 

 phosphates, consequently the excrements derived 

 from such food are correspondingly concen- 

 trated and valuable for the growth of plants. 



According to Wolff, the average percentage 

 composition of human excrements is as fol- 

 lows : — 





1 



S*ts 



c 



bt, 



o 



z 



o 



ft . 



ft<! 



1 



■is 



o 



ft 



0) 



3 



.5 

 a 



Fresh human faeces, 



77-2 



19-8 



1-0 



1-10 



0-25 



62 



36 



Fresh human urine, 



96 3 



2-4 



0-6 



0-17 



0-20 



0-02 



0-02 



Mixture of the two, 



93-5 



5 1 



0-7 



0-26 



0-21 



0-09 



06 



