246 
FERTILIZERS. 
The remaining gelatine is decomposed, and its nitrogen converted into carbonate of ammonia 
and other ammoniacal salts : these are retained mostly by the earthy part of the bones. As 
it regards the changes which antediluvian bones have undergone, it is evident that under favo¬ 
rable circumstances, they have retained almost perfectly their composition. Thus the bones of 
the mastodon, found in marl in Orange county, are perfect where there is a compact stratum of 
peat upon the top of the formation. Renewed fresh or rain water is denied access to these 
bones, and hence their perfect preservation ; it is evident, too, that the waters in which they 
have been so long immersed, have not contained, at any time, carbonic acid, otherwise they 
would have been corroded. All the bones of quadrupeds which die, and have died upon the 
surface and have been exposed to the ordinary atmospheric agency, have been destroyed after 
a few years of exposure only—scarcely a trace of a skeleton of an animal remains upon the 
surface after eight or ten years exposure. 
The quantity vf crushed bones required per acre. From five to six bushels of bone dust per 
acre may be employed to advantage on lands which are to be sown with several crops of grain, 
or a rotation in which wheat and oats or maize are to be applied. A bushel of bone dust weighs 
fifty pounds, if they have been boiled for glue : it is worth fifty cents per bushel. The dust 
may be applied immediately after, or immediately before the sowing of the seed. It becomes 
immediately active in forwarding the crop, having, in the course of boiling, absorbed conside¬ 
rable water, which replaces the fat and gelatine, which favors the solution of the remaining 
animal matter. The effect of boiled bones is more immediate than those which have not been 
boiled, but the duration of their influence is of course proportionally less. One of the most 
valuable effects of bones is the prolonged effect which follows their use ; this is known to con¬ 
tinue for twenty or thirty years. It is customary, however, to repeat their use upon each suc¬ 
cessive rotation. The crops which require phosphate of lime are the cereals, as wheat and 
maize particularly ; flax and hemp ; turnip and other roots. But wheat and maize feel the 
favorable influence of bone dust, and indeed it is scarcely possible to raise a good crop of 
either, except by the use of the phosphates. This remark is intended to apply to those districts 
which have been under culture a half century or more, and have borne many exhausting crops 
of the cereals, tobacco, flax and hemp. 
Phosphate of lime acts directly, and in virtue of its constitution, and the relation it bears to 
the vegetable and animal nature. It does not, like lime, affect the chemical combination of 
other bodies ; that is, it does not decompose them. In the soil the phosphate is the commi¬ 
nuted apatite, or the tribaric phosphate, which possesses but little solubility ; and hence the 
probability that apatite, provided it should be found in sufficient abundance, might be employed 
as a fertilizer. Its sparing solubility may appear objectionable at first, still, if apatite is con¬ 
verted into the superphosphate, by oil of vitriol, its solubility is increased, and its effects, as a 
fertilizer, are seen as speedily as where bones are employed. 
Bones and other phosphates, then are articles of food for the plant; and the theory of their 
action is simple. Where bones and the phosphates are converted into the superphosphate, by 
oil of vitriol, sulphate of lime is formed, and hence we add to our fertilizer sulphuric acid, 
