BONE DUST AS MANURE. 
129 
upon the ground; but everything else has been 
taken to a barn two miles distant. During the 
whole of these six years, the crops upon this 
land have been steadily increasing. Land, 
which, six years ago, was not of itself capable 
of producing ten bushels of barley per acre, 
I will now produce from 30 to 40. Captain Bull- 
er stated that he applied guano to all the root 
crops, at the rate of about 5 cwt. per acre, for 
mangold wurtzel or carrots, which were to be 
taken off, and at the rate of 3 cwt. for white 
turnips. That he took five crops in four years, 
and that he considered he had grown this year, 
140 tons of mangold wurtzel and carrots from 
; seven acres of land. 
BONE DUST AS MANURE. 
We unhesitatingly concede to guano the first 
rank among manures. To this, it is entitled by 
its holding all the required elements of vegeta¬ 
ble food in a just combination, and these in the 
most available condition for assimilation by the 
growing plant. And without any question, next 
to guano, do we place bone dust. This, it is 
true, has not generally all the elements required 
for the full development of vegetable life, as is 
always the case with boiled or burnt bones, and 
such as have long been buried or exposed to the 
weather; yet, if still retaining the oil and fatty 
matter, the fibrine and other nitrogenised sub¬ 
stances, so intimately blended in recent bone, 
it holds every material which constitute, by 
their varied association, the rich compounds 
afforded by the Peruvian guano. 
The filings and sawing, such as is furnished 
by the button and other valuable manufactures 
of bone, are of this description. Nothing but 
sound, recent, healthy bone will suffice for this 
purpose, and it is the dust shavings derived 
from these fresh materials, that are fully enti¬ 
tled to the high merit of approaching to a suc¬ 
cessful competition with guano. The principal 
difference consists in this: That the various com¬ 
pounds of ammonia are already found in guano, 
and are prepared at the instant of contact with 
the soil, and yield up their substance to the claims 
of vegetable life, while those of the bone dust 
must first undergo decomposition in the soil be¬ 
fore its value is felt. This, in the crude, un¬ 
broken bones, requires long years, perhaps a 
century or more, to effect; and the period is 
lessened in proportion as they have been arti¬ 
ficially comminuted or broken up. In the filings, 
&.C., above specified, this division of their parti¬ 
cles has reached the utmost artificial limits. 
Nothing but the bringing into play the latent 
chemical affinities of the multifarious elements 
of bones, can effect a further reduction or dis- 
association of their particles. This may be done, 
to a certain extent, with sulphuric and other 
acids, but far more economically by first mixing 
with the miscellaneous muck heap, and then 
with the soil. It is not so material, however, in 
what way, nor how associated, bone dust may 
finally reach its mother earth. When sufficient¬ 
ly reduced and mixed with the soil, its effects 
will be speedily and most beneficially felt. 
The efficacy of bones has been long kown 
and is now generally appreciated by all intel¬ 
ligent agriculturists. Mr. Palin says, “ for pas¬ 
ture land, and especially the poorer kinds, there 
is nothing equal to bone manure, either as re¬ 
gards the permanency of its effects, or the pro¬ 
duction of a sweet luxurious herbage, of which 
all cattle are fond. Many thousand acres of the 
poor clay soils have been covered with this 
manure during the last eight or ten years.” 
Many instances of the application of bones have 
been afforded in England, where the produce of 
old pastures have been augmented fully 300 per 
cent.; and an almost worthless production of 
weeds and rough grasses has been succeeded 
by a sweet succulent herbage, highly relished 
by animals. One English writer in the Royal 
Agricultural Journal says: “ I have known 
man)^ a poor, honest, but half-broken man raised 
from poverty to comparative independence, and 
many a sinking family saved from inevitable 
ruin, by the help of this wonderful manure.” 
But it is useless to multiply testimony on this 
subject, as the value of this fertiliser is now 
fully appreciated by all intelligent farmers. 
Our present object is to show to the initiated 
as well as the inexperienced, the large propor¬ 
tion of phosphoric acid, which is really the 
most important portion of the bone, which en¬ 
ters into many of our leading crops. It has 
long been known that the herbage in our pas¬ 
tures, clover, wheat, potatoes, turnips, corn, and 
many other of our products are largely ben- 
efitted by bones, but the really large proportion 
of phosphoric acid entering into their composi¬ 
tion has seldom been understood, except to the 
more scientific reader. 
Phosphoric acid consists of phosphor rus 44, 
and oxygen 56 in every 100 parts. Phosphate 
of lime, or bone earth, is composed of phosphor¬ 
ic acid, combined with lime, in the proportion of 
48£ per cent, of the former to 51£ per cent, of the 
latter. 
Bones in their recent state vary as to the age 
of the individual and the species of animal 
