Bones and Sulphuric Acid as Manures. Abb 
tracted — for boiled bones absorb water and speedily decompose — 
they have in the gelatine an immediate supply of ammonia and 
other organic food. 
Upon no tenable grounds, then, can it be maintained that the 
animal matter which exists in bones has no fertilizing influence, 
or that their earthy or inorganic constituents are the sole manuring 
agenrs. On the contrary, it will be seen that in the case of green 
or fresh bones the animal matter is that which almost entirely 
nourishes the crop — the phosphates in this case scarcely coming 
into action al all din ing the first crop — and that it is owing to this 
deficient action of the phosphates from causes already explained, 
that fresh bones are not as active in their effects on the turnip- 
crop as their elements would allow them to be if placed under 
more favourable circumstances. On the other hand, it is evident 
that when calcined bones are used their sole beneficial action arises 
from their inorganic matter, and, as this action is equal, and often 
superior, to that of the fresh bones, it cannot be denied that the 
phosphates alone have an extraordinary effect, and that to them 
we are indebted as the chief manuring element of bones. The 
conclusion, therefore, is that each constituent used singly is a 
manure, and that when combined their defects are diminished by 
the animal portion preventing the earthy from coming into action. 
Upon these principles, then. Science buikis her theory of the appli- 
cation of dissolved bones. 
It is evident," says she, " that the phosphates are essential to 
vegetable nutrition, and that they cannot be too accessible to the 
roots of the plant ; also, that, after the animal matter in bones is 
removed by fire, these phosphates, through the action of the 
organic acids and water in the soil, are most easily as-imilated 
by the vegetable ; it is, therefore, in my power to suggest means 
by which you will imitate the process of Nature, hasten on the 
disintegration of the bone, and, by presenting it to the plant in a 
form ready for use, economize that portion of the tillage, which, 
owing to its being unfit for the use of the growing vegetable, re- 
mains in the soil at the expense of our fixed capital, until it wastes 
or is required by another crop." 
This it will be seen is the ground-work and object of the theory, 
as detailed at the commencement of this paper — a theory which 
has but a limited application, and referring merely to the action 
of calcined bones. Science, however, does not confine herself 
to this. 
" It has been granted," says she, " not merely that the earthy 
matter of bones is an essential food of the plant, and that the pre- 
sence of the animal matter retards its action, but that that animal 
matter is of itself a potent fertilizer; hence, in dispelling it for the 
purpose of facilitating the decomposition of the earthy part, we 
