168 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST 
[Mat, 
Ogden Farm Papers.—No. 75. 
BY GEOItGE E. WAIUNG, JR. 
G. J. Comstock, Marcellus, Mick., lias bought 
300 bushels of ashes, (at 15 cts.); 2,000 lbs. of 
bone-flour, ($42); can get plenty of gypsum four 
miles away, ($3 per ton), and lime at 20 cents per 
bushel. Dirty salt costs him §3.50 per ton. Good 
muck is available two miles away. He asks how, 
out of these materials, to make the best manure 
for barley, oats, corn, and tobacco. He asks if he 
can mix bone dust with good, hardwood ashes and 
salt, using gypsum as a divisor and absorbent, and 
in what proportion these shall be mixed. Also, 
“How can I manufacture superphosphate of lime 
from bone-dust ? ” 
The simplest way to use these materials, and one 
that would undoubtedly give a satisfactory result, 
would be to use the salt at the rate of four or five 
bushels per acre, as a top-dressing by itself; to use 
the gypsum as a top-dressing on clover, early in the 
spring, and not more than two bushels per acre; 
to use the muck, so far as it is used at all, in com¬ 
post with stable manure; to use the ashes alone 
as a top-dressing ; and to use the bone-flour in the 
same way. There is no doubt that with judicious 
application as to quantity, these would all be profit¬ 
able—less so perhaps in the case of the muck, than 
of the other materials, because of the serious 
amount of labor involved in hauling and compost¬ 
ing muck, and because of the further fact that it 
is now very well established that the best use that 
can be made of stable manure, is to apply it in its 
freshest state, as a thin top-dressing for mowing 
lands. 
The value of the bone-flour would be very much 
increased by making it into superphosphate. The 
usefulness of superphosphate is not to be measured 
by the average experience of ordinary farmers in 
using the superphosphates of commerce, for the 
reason that many of these are so adulterated and 
“ scamped ” in manufacture, that they are almost 
worthless, and have tended to bring down the 
average value of all. There is no question but that 
a well made superphosphate of lime, with a suffi¬ 
cient addition of nitrogenous matter, is worth, for 
nearly all uses, quite all that is charged for it, but 
farmers are so dependent upon the statements of 
the sellers, of whose honesty they have no adequate 
means for judging, that where bone-dust and sul¬ 
phuric acid can be procured at reasonable cost, it is 
the wisest plan to make the article at home. 
The preparation of home-made superphosphate 
seems to have been so materially checked by the 
commercial supply, that it has never become a well 
defined branch of farm economy, and it is signifi¬ 
cant that of all recipes that I have thus far seen 
not one is an improvement on that prepared for the 
Royal Agricultural Society of England by W. C. 
Spooner, and published in the Society Journal for 
1S4(5. From this, (and from a paper by Professor 
Way, Chemist to the Society, published in the 
Journal for 1851,) I condense the following facts 
and recommendations : 
Way gives the following analysis of raw bone :— 
Water, fat, cartilage, and gelatine. 43. 
Phosphate of lime, with small quantities of . 
phosphate of magnesia. 46. 
Carbonate of lime. 4. 
Alkaline chlorides, sulphates, etc. 2. 
100 . 
What we have to consider in making superphos¬ 
phate from bone, is the 4G per cent of phosphate of 
lime, and the 4 per cent of carbonate of lime. The 
phosphate of lime is to be converted into a super¬ 
phosphate (soluble, and much more valuable) by 
the use of sulphuric acid, but the first action of the 
sulphuric acid applied will be to unite with the 
lime of the carbonate, and so much acid as is need¬ 
ed for this purpose is practically lost, and it is only 
what is applied in excess of this that reacts upon 
the phosphate. 
Pure sulphuric acid does not exist, it is always 
combined with more or less water. The heavy 
acid, called oil of vitriol, contains a little over 80 
per cent of real'acid ; the brown liquid, or “ cham¬ 
ber” acid, contains only about 60 per cent. Mak¬ 
ing due allowance for this difference of strength, 
and supposing the cheap chamber acid to be used, 
the four pounds of carbonate of lime in one hun¬ 
dred pounds of bones will take about five pounds 
of the acid, and the forty-six pounds of phosphate 
of lime will require for its conversion from thirty 
to thirty-five pounds of chamber acid; if the 
amount used is too little, a part of the phosphate 
will remain unchanged, and will produce its effect 
on the soil much more slowly; if too much acid is 
used, the surplus will react on other matters con¬ 
tained in the bone-dust, or on constituents of the 
soil, and no harm will be done. Mr. Spooner’s di¬ 
rections for the practical domestic manufacture of 
superphosphate from bones are very simple, and 
seem to obviate most of the difficulties that are 
usually experienced. 
When sulphuric acid is mixed with one-fourth of 
its weight of water, the temperature of the mixture 
is raised to 300 degrees, and this increase of heat 
he uses as a valuable accessory in reducing the 
bone-dust. He advises the use of a sugar hogs¬ 
head standing on its end, the bung stopped with 
plaster of Paris, and the top open. Into this, put 
four bushels of bone-dust, and sprinkle it very 
evenly with an amount of water equal to one-fourth 
of the weight of the acid, and stir up the mass so 
that all parts of the boue shall become uniformly 
moistened. On a stand as high as the top of the 
cask place a carboy of acid, and as sulphuric acid 
is dangerous to handle, and much injury is often 
caused by splashing in attempting to pour it, he 
recommends the use of a siphon, which may 
he a bent lead-pipe having a faucet and a rose 
sprinkler at its lower end. Fill the siphon 
with water, closing the short arm with the 
finger (to keep the siphon full), and quickly insert 
this short arm into the car¬ 
boy. Then open the faucet, 
and nearly the whole of the 
acid will be discharged into 
the cask, where it will set up 
a seething combination with 
the water—and as the water is 
diffused throughout the whole 
mass of bone, it will serve 
as an attraction to carry the 
acid to exert its decomposing 
influence in every part of the 
material. During the process, 
there will be an escape of heat¬ 
ed and foul smelliug fumes 
of carbonic acid and organ¬ 
ic matters. While these are 
escaping, the workman should 
be careful not to inhale them. 
He should be provided with 
a fork or other implement for 
stirring the mass, approaching 
the cask from the windward 
side, and mixing it as thor¬ 
oughly as possible. Within 
a short time, when the heat 
has subsided sufficiently not 
to evaporate the next dose of 
water, the same process may 
be repeated with a fresh sup¬ 
ply of bones, water, and acid, 
and may be continued with 
proper intervals until the hogs¬ 
head is nearly filled. After 
two days, the mixture may be 
removed and shoveled into a 
heap, to remain until wanted, 
or, if needed for immediate 
use, it may be mixed with 
enough gypsum, or dry peat, or 
eocd-ashes, to absorb its surplus moisture. This 
handling will render the mixture fine enough to 
use with a drill. It is of the greatest consequence 
that the water first used for sprinkling be mixed as 
uniformly as possible with the bone-dust, so that 
the sulphuric acid may be attracted to every part of 
the mass, and even with the best care in this 
respect, the result will be improved by a considera¬ 
ble amount of stirring. 
The mixing of bone-dust with hard-wood ashes, 
even when gypsum is used as an absorbent, is hard¬ 
ly to be recommended, both because in such ad¬ 
mixture the potash of the ashes would have a ten¬ 
dency to throw off ammonia from the decomposing 
bone dust, beyond the capacity of the gypsum to 
absorb it, and because a better use can be made of 
both materials, by using them differently. Ashes 
are valuable for reducing whole bones, thus saving 
the cost of grinding. Put the bones and ashes to¬ 
gether, well mixed, (the ashes filling all the inter¬ 
stices between the bones,) into a hogshead, under 
cover, and keep the mass well moistened. In time 
the potash uniting with the fatty parts of the bones, 
and reacting on its organic matter, will cause such 
a disintegration of their substances that they can 
easily be crushed, and made into a useful fertilizer. 
Though the pulverizing effect thus obtaiued is 
vastly inferior to that produced by the action of 
the sulphuric acid, in decomposing the phosphate 
of lime in the bones, still it is the best cheap and 
easy way to reduce large bones, and makes a ma¬ 
nure that proves very effective, even when used in 
so small a quantity as twenty bushels per acre. 
Where both ashes and refuse bones are available, 
it offers an extremely useful and economical means 
for obtaining a valuable special fertilizer—par¬ 
ticularly valuable for grass and grain crops, and 
when used at the rate of fifty bushels an acre, is a 
good dressing for turnips. 
A House Costing 81,200 to $1,300. 
BT S. B. REED, ARCHITECT, CORONA, LONG ISLAND, N. Y. 
This economical cottage has ample, convenient 
appartments for a medium sized family, and is 
adapted to either a village or a more rural location.. 
A 25 x 100 feet lot will contain such a house, be¬ 
sides the needed gide alley way to the rear. Those 
contemplating the erection of low-priced, tasteful 
cottages in duplication, either for selling, or by 
cooperation as in Building Associations, will find 
this plan suited to their wants_ Exterior, 
(fig. 1).—The front presents a graceful, trim out¬ 
line, with a neat and pleasant arrangement of open¬ 
ings. The Porch fits in an angle, with its steps 
projecting beyond the principal building, providing 
