THE AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL 



About Bonedustm 



SAYS " R. D." in Tfie Australasian :— 

 It is not wise to delay purchasing arti- 

 ficial manures until almost the moment 

 they are required. It is more than prob- 

 able that a great deal of manure will be 

 required next season, and the farmers 

 who take time by the forelock and secure 

 the fulfilment of their orders at the 

 earliest period that is convenient will, in 

 all probability, have reason to congratulate 

 themselves before the close of next sowing 

 season. Some manures, bonedust for 

 example, improves by being kept in a 

 heap three or four months before it is 

 required for use, a fact to which sufficient 

 importance is not generally attached, 

 hence the desirability of laying in a supply 

 before it is actually required for use. The 

 efficacy of bonedust as a manure, assum- 

 ing it to be pure, depends upon its solu- 

 bility. In this connection experiments 

 conducted by Voelcker many years ago 

 are instructive and reliable. He found 

 that different kinds of bone varied much 

 ill their solubility and practical efficiency 

 as manures, and his experience led him 

 to the following conclusions .—1. Bone- 

 dust made from solid bones, even when 

 reduced to a fine powder, is less soluble 

 in water, and acts more slowly on vegeta- 

 tion than much coarser . bonedust made 

 from porous or spongy bones. 2. Fresh 

 bones impregnated with grease do not 

 readily enter into decomposition, and are 

 less valuable as a manure than bones from 

 which most of the fat has been removed 

 by boiling in an open copper. '?>. Fat or 

 bone grease has no fertilising value what- 

 ever, and, as it retards the solution of 

 bonedust in water, it is decidedly an 

 objectionable constituent of fresh bones 

 as far as the agriculturist is concerned. 

 4. Water dissolves much more phosphates 

 of lime from rotten than from fresh 

 bones. 5. During the putrefaction of 

 bones soluble nitrogenous organic com- 

 pounds and ammoniacal salts are pro- 

 duced from the gelatine contained in the 

 bones. These compounds act powerfully 

 and quickly as fertilising constituents, 

 and are indirectly useful in greatly en- 

 hancing the solubility of bone phosphates 



in water. 6. Bonedust kept in a heap for 

 three or four months heats and becomes 

 more efficacious as a manure than bone- 

 dust applied to the land fresh from the mill. 

 7. High-pressure steam renders bones so 

 brittle that they can easily be ground into 

 a fine powder, which is readily assimi- 

 lated by plants. 8. Bonemeal prepared 

 by high-pressure steam contains not much 

 less nitrogen than ordinary bonedust, and, 

 as a manure, is far more efficacious and 

 valuable than the latter. 9. Placed in a 

 heap, with ashes or sand, and occasionally 

 moistened with liquid manure or watei-, 

 bone enters into putrefaction, and be- 

 comer a much more soluble and energetic 

 manure than ordinary bonedust. 



Milking Trials at the 

 Dairy Show, 



IN his reports in the Journal of the 

 British Dairy Farmers' Association on 

 llie milking trials at the London Dairy 

 Show, Mr. F. J. Lloyd, F.I.C., suggests 

 some alterations in the arrangements for 

 carrj'ing out these competitions. He sug- 

 gests the following plan : — "If every cow 

 were milked out on the Monday evening, 

 again at seven on Tuesday morning, and 

 the milk weighed, then the inspection 

 might take place on Tuesday afternoon, 

 prior to the second weighing at 6 p.m. on 

 Tuesday evening. Tlie cows would then 

 be in a normal condition, and not, as at 

 present, when judged at 11 a.m., or later, 

 in an abnormal condition, with their 

 udders extended, and containing seventeen 

 or eighteen hours' secretion. It is this 

 abnormal condition on the Tuesday morn- 

 ing which upsets the cows, and causes, 

 frequently, abnormal results to be ob- 

 tained in the subsequent milking trials, 

 so that the results obtained at these trials 

 carry far less weight, and, indeed, are far 

 less valuable than they might and ought 

 to be. ' 



A good dairy cow should be giviner the great- 

 esc amount of m Ik within three months of 

 calvin<;. After hat begin to reduce the feed 

 gradually, allowing her to dry up and have a rest 

 of two months each year. 



