206 CANADA GYPSUM.—-DISSOLVING BONES IN SULPHURIC ACID. 
Hence, when hot, or newly-calcined lime is 
broken into pieces of a small size, and mixed with 
peat, moderately humid, heat is disengaged, and 
that heat, by the slacking of the lime, when it is 
applied in too great a proportion, is so increased, 
as completely to reduce the peat to charcoal, and to 
dissipate, in a gaseous state, all its component 
parts, excepting the ashes, part of the carbonaceous 
matter, and such a portion of the carbonic acid gas 
generated in the process, as is absorbed by the lime, 
by which that substance is made to return to the 
state of a carbonate. No benefit can, therefore, 
arise by this method of preparing peat with lime, 
the object not being to destroy and dissipate in a 
gaseous state the component parts of the peat, but 
to make such a combination with the lime, and the 
gas generated in the process, as will, on the appli¬ 
cation of the mixture to ground, promote the 
growth of plants. 
This object is best attained by mixing newly- 
made, and completely slacked lime, with about five 
or six times its weight of peat, which should be 
moderately humid, and not in too dry a state. In 
this case, the heat generated will be moderate, and 
never sufficient to convert the peat into carbona¬ 
ceous matter, or to throw off, in the state of a gas, 
the acids therein contained. The gases thus gene¬ 
rated will be converted into volatile alkali, which i 
will combine, as it is formed, with the oxygenated 
part of the peat that remains unacted upon by the 
lime applied for this special purpose, in a small 
proportion. By this mode of conducting the pro¬ 
cess, a soluble saline matter will be procured, con¬ 
sisting, in part, of phosphate of ammonia, the 
beneficial effects of which on vegetation will be too 
apparent to need further comment. 
Inattention, or ignorance of these important facts, 
has probably, in many cases, defeated the wishes 
of the farmer in the application of this preparation, 
which is particularly recommended as a top-dress¬ 
ing to grounds under pasture. The proportion of 
the lime to the peat here given, should be carefully 
attended to, and the mixing of the two substances 
together should be performed under cover, in a 
shed or outhouse constructed for that purpose, as 
too much rain, or a too great exposure to air, will 
prevent a due action of the lime upon the peat. 
The success of most operations, but more espe¬ 
cially of those of a chemical nature, greatly depends 
upon a regular and due observance of circumstances 
apparently trivial. 
Canada Gypsum. —Mr. Moyle, of Canada West, 
recently addressed a communication to the Council 
of the Royal Agricultural Society of England, on 
the subject of the results obtained by him with the 
cretaceous gypsum, to which he had referred in a 
former letter; with an opinion, that, to the use of 
this cheap dressing, he attributed the great fertility 
of Canada, and a statement that on one of his own 
50-acre fields, chiefly wheat, he had, last summer, 
grown 40 bushels to the acre; the land of his farm 
having been through the usual rotation of crops for 
the nine years previous, and the portion on which 
this wheat was grown never having had any dress¬ 
ing whatever, excepting one bushel per acre annu¬ 
ally of the plaster (gypsum) in question. 
DISSOLVING BONES IN SULPHURIC ACID. 
The discovery of Dr. Liebig of dissolving bones 
in sulphuric acid for the purposes of manure, has 
been so clearly established by the experiments of 
the Duke of Richmond and other agriculturists in 
Britain, that nothing seems now to be wanted but 
some economical plan of introducing it into the 
ordinary routine of farming. Mr. Pusey, in a 
paper on this subject, in a late number of the 
Journal of the Royal Agricultural Society of Eng¬ 
land, points out, in a popular way, what Liebig’s 
theory is, and in what the peculiar active principle 
of bones consists. 
“ Bones, it is well known,” he says, “ have been 
long used in England for the turnip crop; still, 
though their success on some soils was certain, the 
cause of that success was by no means so clear ; for 
fresh bones are made up of oil, of jelly or gelatine, 
and of phosphorus united with lime. But when the 
oil was boiled out of the bones they still acted, and 
when the jelly was burnt out of them, they still 
acted even more rapidly—so that without at all 
saying that either the oil did nothing, or the jelly 
did nothing, it became clear that the peculiar active 
principle of bones is the phosphorus combiped with 
the lime ; and, as the quantity of the lime is insig¬ 
nificant, that it is the phosphorus—a pale substance 
! like wax, which has the singular property of giv¬ 
ing a faint blue light when in the dark. This 
curious substance, it appears, which may be bought 
for a few pence, at any chemist’s, is one of the 
I main elements with which nature works in com¬ 
pounding seeds and roots serving for the food of 
man and of beast. 
“ In bones, however, the phosphorus, in an acid 
state, is compounded with lime in such a propor¬ 
tion as to form a salt called phosphate of lime, 
which water does not dissolve, and which there¬ 
fore acts slowly upon the roots of crops to which it 
is applied as manure. Dr. Liebig knew that oil of 
vitriol (sulphuric acid), if mixed with bones, would 
take to itself a part of this lime, leaving behind a 
new salt containing at least a double portion of 
phosphorus, and therefore called superphosphate of 
lime, which salt being dissolved by water, he 
hoped would afford a more digestible food for the 
young turnip, and the result has answered his ex¬ 
pectations. Such is the simple history of this 
great discovery.” 
Mr. Pusey then proceeds to describe his mode of 
making a compost of dissolved bones for drilling, 
and details an experiment in which raw bones, 
Fothergill’s superphosphate of lime, and the com¬ 
post of dissolved bones were pitted against each 
other, as follows:— 
“ I formed a flat heap of dry mould about ten 
feet across, the surface of which was scooped into 
a hollow basin, capable of holding twenty bushels 
of ground fresh bones. A little water was poured 
on, but I have since omitted the water. Sulphuric 
acid, to the amount of about half the weight of the 
bones, was gradually poured into this basin. They 
soon begin to heat, seething violently', and sending 
out a great deal of steam, with a peculiarly oflen- 
sive stench ; presently the whole mixture wears the 
appearance of boiling blood, and swells so much 
from the escape of gas, that the workmen, stirring 
