BONES AS MANURE. 
In the meantime another harvest is approach¬ 
ing, when, we trust, the heavens will be more 
propitious. Peace has been announced in Eu¬ 
rope ; the ports of Russia on the Black and 
Baltic Seas, the Danubian Provinces, and other 
wheat-growing countries of the East, have been 
again opened to commerce ; the prohibition on 
the export of grain from Continental States has 
been rescinded ; the peasantry of the belliger¬ 
ent empires are being dismissed from the army, 
and returning to peaceful pursuits; and we 
doubt whether our friend will very soon again 
have even two dollars offered for his wheat crop 
of last year’s raising. 
A very shrewd operator in stocks, who made 
a fortune in the gambling arena of the stock 
market where so many thousands of men fail, 
stated his rule to be “ always to buy upon a 
rising market and sell upon a falling one 
meaning thereby that he waited until the turn¬ 
ing point, either of a rise or fall, was past, be¬ 
fore he bought or sold. If stocks were going 
down, he kept out of the market until’ they be¬ 
gan to me, as they naturally would do after a 
period of depression, and then made his pur¬ 
chases—watching the fluctuations until prices 
had turned the upper point, he immediately 
sold. This rule will not exactly apply to the 
farmer, as he does not operate by purchase and 
sale in order to profit by the difference of price 
but produces with a view to dispose of the pro¬ 
ducts at a profit on his capital and labor. His 
rule should be to prepare the product for market 
as soon as can conveniently be done, and, if 
there is a reasonable prospect of an advance, 
hold it until that advance shall come. If the 
price is not remunerative, and the article will 
keep, hold it at all events, unless compelled by 
necessity to sell. The time will come, and 
that at no distant period, when remunerative 
prices will be obtained. 
Men do not always gain by waiting for an 
advance upon reasonable prices, even though 
such a result does eventually occur. For in¬ 
stance, a farmer may be owing money for the 
purchase of his farm, and payments are falling 
due. In order to get an extension, he is com¬ 
pelled to plead with his creditors, injure his 
credit for punctuality, or, it may be—and not 
unfrequently is the case—pay usurious rates for 
an accommodation. He may have a favorable 
opportunity to purchase farm stock or imple- 
MOORE’S RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
AN ORIGINAL WEEKLY 
AGRICULTURAL, LITERARY AND FAMILY JOURNAL, 
Bones. —We learn that a firm, in this city, have a con¬ 
tract with a house in Liverpool to supply them with 600 
tons of hones, delivered at New York. The firm here pay 
five dollars per ton, and have already some hundred tons 
in store, which were gathered and brought in by different 
parties. The bones are ground up in England and used for 
manure. 
The above paragraph is taken from a Roches¬ 
ter paper, and contains one of the secrets of the 
success of English agriculturists. The farmers 
of Great Britain feed the soil as well as their 
live stock, even though they should cross the 
ocean for the purpose of obtaining the fertilizing 
material. Germany, Belgium, Holland and the 
Continent generally has, heretofore, supplied 
the markets of England with the bones thus 
used, but brother Jonathan, notwithstanding his 
reputation, both at home and abroad, for wide¬ 
awake acuteness, has exposed a weak spot, and 
the go-ahead farmers of the “ sea-girt isles” take 
the advantage thus offered, and carry to their 
own homes what should become the “ circulat¬ 
ing medium” of American Agriculture. 
Bones are prepared for the soil in several 
-ways,—by crushing, burning, steaming, dissolv¬ 
ing through chemical agencies, and fermenta¬ 
tion. 
The process of grinding, or reducing bones to 
a powder, (the best state in which to use this 
manure,) is one attended with heavy expense, 
and is not practicable to the moderate farmer. 
Strong machinery is required as well as great 
motive power. An outlay is not guaranteed 
without the mill can be kept in almost constant 
operation. 
This material is often prepared in merchant¬ 
able form as “crushed bone,” and classified 
under the titles of “ inch," “ inch-aud-a-half” 
The crushing mill con- 
ri'l 
CONDUCTED BY D. D. T. MOORE, 
WITH AN ABLE CORPS OF ASSISTANT EDITORS. 
SPECIAL CONTUIIIUTOnSs 
H. T. BROOKS, Prof. C. DEWEY, 
T. C. PETERS, L. B. LANGWORTHY, 
H. C. WHITE, T. E. WETMORE. 
The Rural New-Yorker is designed to be uniquo and 
beautiful in appearance, and unsurpassed in Value, Purity and 
Variety of Contents. Its conductors earnestly labor to make it 
a Reliable Guide on the important Practical Subjects connected 
with the business of those whose interests it advocates. It 
embraces more Agricultural, Horticultural, Scientific, Mechan¬ 
ical, Literary and News Matter, interspersed with many appro¬ 
priate and beautiful Engravings, than any other paper published 
in this Country,—rendering it a complete Agricultural, Lit¬ 
erary and Family Newspaper. 
*,* The postage on the Rural is but 3)£ cents per quarter, to 
any part of the State (except Monroe County, where it goes free,) 
and 6% cents to any other section of the United States—payable 
quarterly in advance at the office whero received. 
ICz7~ All communications, and business letters, should be ad¬ 
dressed to D. D. T. MOORE, Rochester, N. Y. 
For Terms, and other particulars, see last page. 
FARM COTTAGE-ELEVATION. 
Some one has said that the dearest words in 
the English language were Mother and Home ; 
we will add that the Mother and the Home are 
the two most powerful operatives upon the hu¬ 
man mind. The pattern, the base and the be- 
ginping of all society are in the family. Here, 
rather than in governments or great men the 
progress of humanity can be traced. Here we 
first learn our relations to the world at large— 
that we are mutually dependent and recipro¬ 
cally responsible. Here forms the line, begin¬ 
ning and ending only with life. How impor¬ 
tant, therefore, that all the elements, means and 
instruments which serve to render every habi¬ 
tation a Home should be eagerly sought for and 
as judiciously appropriated. To this end, every 
one who intends building should do so in such 
manner as will render the greatest amount of 
the comforts and conveniences of a well-order¬ 
ed dwelling for the amount invested. 
We give above a design from Allen’s Rural 
Architecture- 
boarded, and shingled in the usual mode, is 
well spread over the gables, as well as over the 
front and rear—say 18 inches. In a stony coun¬ 
try, where the adjoining enclosures are of stone, 
this cottage may be built of stone, also, at about 
double the cost of wood. 
The skill and foresight of a farmer do not 
terminate with the moment his crops are har¬ 
vested and safely housed. He may pause in his 
labors, and look about him with a feeling of 
satisfaction at the results, but the exercise of a 
continued vigilance will be needed, whether 
the products are intended to be consumed upon 
his own premises, or sold in the market. 
Perishable materials must be disposed of be¬ 
fore the period of deterioration and decay ; and 
those of long .duration, like grain and wool, 
must be protected against fire and depredators, 
and sold, if possible, at the spring-tide of prices 
for the year. But when that particular time to 
sell has arrived, is the point difficult to deter¬ 
mine. If a man could look into futurity, the 
question could be easily answered; but that 
power is withheld by One greater and wiser 
than we, and for our own good. 
An intelligent forecast, however, is within the 
reach of all men; the signs of the times, the 
bearing of natural and political events, the 
combinations of circumstances that have weight 
in determining prices, are to a certain extent 
subjects for our calculation. If a dearth or a 
blight has fallen upon any particular product; 
if a war or a pestilence has removed the labor¬ 
ers, dried up the sources of supply, or dammed 
back the outlets of commerce ; if an increased 
area of consumption or a decreased field of pro¬ 
duction destroys the equilibrium ; or any other 
and “two-inch-bone, 
sists of two iron cylinders, grooved round the 
circumference, the projections being cut into the 
form of teeth 
the cylinders turn upon one 
another, and are so arranged that the teeth of 
one will pass between the grooves of the other. 
This, like the preceding mode, is too expensive 
for general introduction. 
Burning is an easy and expeditious manner 
of pulverizing the bone, but is attended with 
the loss of much of its valuable fertilizing prop¬ 
erties. The action of moisture and the soil 
when in this condition, soon renders them ex¬ 
cellent food for the roots of those plants the 
growth of which we wish to accelerate. Where 
the manure is wanted for immediate use this 
mode might be adopted. 
The steaming process is one that has for a few 
years attracted much attention in Great Britain. 
This operation is performed with a boiler, simi¬ 
lar to such as are used for furnishing the motive 
power of engines. A false bottom, upon which 
the bones rest, is placed about nine inches above 
-one of a series of Farm Cotlages | 
which we purpose to lay before the readers of 
the Rural. 
This cottage is 10 feet high, from the sill to 
the plates, and may be built of wood, with a 
slight frame composed of sills and plates only, 
and planked up and down (vertically) and bat¬ 
tened ; or grooved and tongued, and matched 
close together ; or it may be framed throughout 
with posts and studs, and covered with rough 
boards, and over these clapboards, and lathed 
and plastered inside. TheTirst mode would be 
the cheapest, although not so warm and dura¬ 
ble as the other. On the second plan of build¬ 
ing, it will cost near or quite double the amount 
of the first, if neatly painted. 
INTERIOR ARRANGEMENT. 
This being designed as the humblest and 
cheapest kind of cottage, where the family oc¬ 
cupy only a single room, the cost would be 
small. On the plan first named, stained with 
a coarse wash, it could be built for $100. On 
the second plan, well-framed of sills, plates, 
posts, studs, Ac., &c., covered with vertical 
boarding and battens, or clapboarded, and well 
painted in oil, it might cost $150 to $200.— 
Stone, or brick, without paint, would add but 
little, if anything in cost over the last sum.— 
TWO DOLLARS A YEAR.] 
Y0LUME YII. NO. 21.1 
[ SINGLE NO. FIVE CENTS. 
{WHOLE NO. 333. 
disturbing cause intervenes, we may reasonably 
calculate upon an increase of price, while oppo¬ 
site causes may be expected to produce oppo¬ 
site results. Speculation may occasion tempo¬ 
rary high prices, without any aid from these 
natural stimulants, but such disturbances are 
usually fitful, and soon followed by an opposite 
tendency. If prices have ruled for a considera¬ 
ble time above fair rates, lower ones may rea¬ 
sonably be expected to succeed, and if an ex¬ 
cessive depression has continued unabated, a 
turn of the tide is about as sure to come as that 
time goes on. 
The acute farmer notes all these things and 
governs himself accordingly. There are thou¬ 
sands of men, however, who are never quite 
satisfied with the prices, no matter how ex¬ 
treme ; they wait for one wave more in the 
golden tide before selling, and not unfrequently 
come to their senses when the rapidly ebbing 
waters have carried their own barks far astern 
of others who anchored even before the exact 
moment of flood-tide ; or, (dropping the meta- I 
phor and speaking in plain terms,) they look for 
one advance too many, and when prices have 
culminated and begun to recede, they wait for 
them to rise again to the point previously at¬ 
tained while they were looking for something 
higher ; but, contrary to their expectations, and 
perhaps as a just punishment for their avarice, 
the decline continues, and they are at last forced 
to sell at greatly reduced figures. We have an 
acquaintance in our mind at this moment, who 
sold his wheat crop of 1854 for two dollars 
thirty seven and a half cents; he has now on 
hand his last year’s wheat, (luckily not much 
damaged by the rain,) for which, several months 
since, he was offered and refused two dollars. 
He wanted two dollars thirty seven and a half 
cents for this also, and he has it still on hand. 
tnemselves to tne viguaLt noicier ot ready 
money at frequent intervals. Besides all these, 
money is always worth legal rates of interest, 
while the produce lying on hand awaiting a 
rise, is for the time so much dead capital, sub¬ 
jected also to deterioration, accident, and pil¬ 
lage, not to mention the chance also of prices 
going down instead of up. 
The farmers and the business men within the 
scope of our acquaintance, who have made the 
most money, are not those who have obtained 
the highest prices; but they are those, who, be¬ 
ing contented with moderate profits, have made 
these profits accumulate by frequent repetition. 
The nimble penny is the winning coin; and 
“the rolling stone” is the one that “gathers no 
moss.” Not unfrequently, by a lucky combi¬ 
nation of circumstances, or rather, we should 
say, by that acuteness of reasoning and justness 
of conclusion acquired by this very habit of 
activity, the latter class of men obtain, on the 
whole, much better prices than the man who 
locks his granary against honest purchasers as 
well as thieves, and then supinely waits in the 
hope of gaining one more penny by delay.— 
The man who digs in the earth and hides his 
talent will, at the period of exhumation, find 
one talent still; while he, who puts it into ac¬ 
tive circulation, will find it doubling on his 
hands. 
The safe and true rule is, not to sell at a loss, 
but to watch the course of events for opportu¬ 
nity to dispose of everything at a profit; and 
not, on the other hand, to wait for enormotts 
profits against even chances of a decline. The 
man who acts upon the former rule is almost 
sure to prosper, while he who acts upon the 
latter, will be very likely to engender habits 
which mark him out as an example of penuri¬ 
ousness, inactivity and folly. 
the base of the boiler. Twelve inches of water 
are let in, and the steam kept up for twenty- 
four hours at an average pressure of twenty- 
five pounds to the square inch. Bones thus 
prepared decompose very readily. We extract 
from Browne’s Field Book of Manures the re¬ 
sults of two analyses of steamed bones, as given 
by Dr. Anderson, Chemist, to the Highland 
Ag. Society of Scotland : 
No. 1. 
No. 2. 
Water. 
.12.66 
13.86 
Animal Matter. 
..27.37 
19.90 
Bone Earth. 
..59.97 
66.24 
100.00 
100.00 
The Dr. also made an analyses of several spe¬ 
cimens of bones otherwise prepared. Number 
1 were bones one inch in length ; No. 2, ordi¬ 
nary finely crushed ; No. 3, entire bones or in 
the state in which they are usually pui chased 
by bone crushers. The following was the result: 
No. 1. 
No. 2. 
No. 3. 
....10.00 
10.39 
14.79 
Animal Matter .. 
....41.88 
42.60 
37.02 
Bone Earth .... 
....48.12 
47.01 
48.19 
100.00 
100.0) 
100.00 
It can readily be seen that there is a large 
loss of animal matter in the process of steaming 
caused by the extraction of gelatine, a com¬ 
pound extremely rich in nitrogen, and conse¬ 
quently valuable as a manure. 
Boiling in lye will reduce the bones to a paste 
in a few hours. This manner has, however, an 
objectionable feature, unless it can be perform¬ 
ed in close vessels. The ammonia escapes and 
the value is thus much depreciated. 
Sulphuric acid will decompose the bones in a 
short time, rendering them fit for application to 
the soil, but while it can be done in another 
manuer as effectually” and with less expendi¬ 
ture, this course is not advisable. 
The main body of this cottage is 18x12 feet, 
with a lean-to, 8 feet wide, running its whole 
length in fhe rear. The roof, which is raftered, 
The process of fermentation is one that will 
most readily recommend itself to the farmer, 
both as regards the ease in which it can 
be accomplished, and the cost involved. — 
Manure or ashes can be used. The mode of op¬ 
eration is simply to place the bones and the 
manure or ashes in alternate layers. The final 
covering should be heavy and of some absorb¬ 
ent that will catch and fix escaping gases.— 
Muck and charcoal are among the best. In¬ 
stances are known where this plan has been 
followed out, in which the bones were so tho¬ 
roughly decomposed that hardly a trace of them 
was left. 
The fertilizing property of bone manure is 
governed by the state in which it is applied. 
Should immediate action be desired, the finer 
it is ground materially affects the end sought 
for. The length of time it beneficially operates 
upon the soil is controlled by the same cause,— 
decomposition being in proportion to size, the 
depth buried, and the nature ot the soil to which 
it is applied. Its value has been made mani¬ 
fest in some cases after a period of sixty years. 
Lands have shown the effects of a single dres¬ 
sing for fifteen or twenty years, thus proving 
the permanency of its fertilizing properties. 
All doubts in regard to the value of bones as 
a manurial application having been removed by 
repeated and satisfactory experiments, we hope 
that the farmers who have hitherto allowed the 
various fertilizing elements produced upon their 
lands to go to waste, will take heed and not 
compel those following the dictates of sound 
I judgment, to “pick a bone” with them. 
The ceiling of the main floor is 8 feet high, and 
a low chamber or garret is afforded above it, to 
which a step ladder ascends. 
PREPARING- WOOL FOR MARKET.' 
[ The following valuable and seasonable article on this 
important subject, is from the pen of one of the pioneer 
farmers of Western New York— Hector Hitchcock, Esq., 
of South Livonia, who has for some thirty years made 
Wool Growing a prominent and profitable branch of busi¬ 
ness. During the past winter we had the rare good fortune 
of spending a night at the hospitable homestead of Mr. H., 
and listening to an interesting acccount of his experience, 
in the course of which he spoke at some length on the 
subject of Sheep Husbandry — imparting much useful in¬ 
formation. We intended, ere this, to have embodied the 
substance of his suggestions in an article for publication ; 
but as he has, by request, kindly favored us with an able 
paper, (which we trust will be succeeded by others,) we 
will not attempt to relate what another is so much better 
qualified to impart. It may be proper to add that Mr. H. 
keeps several hundred Spanish Merino Sheep — and if the 
hundred yearling lambs which we saw during our visit are 
a fair sample of the flock, (as we presume is the fact,) his 
reputation as a “ good shepherd” is well merited. They 
were certainly extra, and such as would be creditable to 
any breeder in the land. But, in addition to giving the 
name of our modest friend, we are saying what, though 
deserved, he may not approve—and at the same time keep¬ 
ing our readers from his excellent article. Therefore, 
craving pardon of both parties, we retire— Ed. Rural.] 
How Should Wool be Prepared for Market I 
This is a very important question, both for 
the wool grower and manufacturer. There are 
three ways of doing it. The easiest and best, 
is that recommended a few years ago by Messrs. 
Perkins <fc Brown, of Ohio, of wetting the 
sheep and allowing them to stand in the yard 
until they have become warm,— when the oil 
becomes “ soapy,” requiring but little labor af¬ 
terwards to wash them entirely clean, and shear 
in three days, or as soon as dry. Another way 
is to wash without the “ soaking and warming’’ 
“PROGRESS AND IMPROVEMENT.’ 
ROCHESTER, N, Y.-SATURDAY, MAY U, 1856, 
