232 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
March 30 
Part VII. 
Wood Ashes and Bone. 
Now remember, when acted on by the 
sulphuric acid, phosphoric acid is com¬ 
bined with one part of lime, and is soluble; 
when it takes one more part of lime, it 
is reverted, and is available as food for 
plants, though not soluble in water ; and 
when it is combined with three parts of 
lime, it is insoluble and of but little use 
for plants. See what a wonderful pro¬ 
vision of Nature this is ! The insoluble 
form prevents waste for, locked up with 
the thr-ee parts of lime, the phosphoric 
acid must remain inert until set free by 
grinding—mechanical and chemical. In 
its soluble form, water carries it all over 
the soil, and distributes it evenly ; and 
then the second part of lima “ reverts’' it 
and holds it in the soil in such shape that 
the plant can feed on it while the water 
cannot wash it into the drain or ditch. 
Of course this soluble phosphoric acid is 
not all reverted. A little of it is washed 
out of some soils, and some of it, doubt¬ 
less, unites with iron or other substances, 
besides the lime which holds it in an in¬ 
soluble condition. To that extent, it is 
lost for plant food. That is a point to 
remember when we come to talk about 
the difference between phosphoric acid in 
bone, and in dissolved rock or boneblack. 
Now go back to the table printed on 
page 212: 
POUNDS IN 100. 
Wood ashes. 2 
Ground bone. 20 
Dissolved phosphate rock. 12 
Dissolved boneblack. 16 
Ground fish. 7 
Cotton-seed meal. 3 
Basic slag. 20 
Tankage. 10 
Let us briefly review these substances, 
and see what sort of phosphoric acid they 
furnish. Ashes, as we know, furnish 
the phosphoric acid in the form of an 
ash. This form is not very available. 
Fertilizer men formerly used it with 
acid to make a superphosphate. It is now 
but little used for this purpose, as other 
forms are cheaper. But a small portion 
of it is available , and for the best results, 
some available form should be used with 
it. This is done when ground bone is 
added. The ground bone is more avail¬ 
able than the bone ash ? Yes. How can 
that be when the tire grinds up the phos¬ 
phate of lime much finer than any 
machine can ? That is a good question, 
and it brings out one point of superiority 
of bone as a source of phosphoric acid. 
We saw in discussing potash, that some¬ 
times when wood was burned at a fierce 
heat, some of the potash united with 
sand to make glass, so that it became 
locked up so securely that only strong 
acids can dissolve it. Something of the 
sort evidently happens to the bone when 
it is burned to an ash, so that while made 
very much finer, the particles of bone are 
not so easily used by the plant. Bone is 
an organic, porous substance Take a 
young and thrifty tree and put on op¬ 
posite sides—equal distances away—a 
big whole bone and a lump of equal 
weight of a crude mineral phosphate 
like a chunk of phosphate rock. You 
will find in after years that the great 
majority of the tree roots have gone 
direct to the bone, and that, tough and 
hard as it is, they have etched or eaten 
into it and drawn substance from it. On 
the other hand, the lump of phosphate 
rock will hardly show any trace of the 
root feeding. Now grind the bone and 
the lump of rock to fine powder, and 
again put them near the tree. Y’ou will 
find the roots working all over and 
through the porous bits of bone, while 
the ground rock or floats will be but 
slightly affected. Except in certain 
cases where the harder bones are used— 
say, like heads or thigh bones—we think 
it useless to use acid on ground bone. 
We would prefer the finely ground pure 
bone, and if a small amount of water- 
soluble phosphoric acid were needed, we 
would add a superphosphate to the bone. 
The superphosphates are made from 
phosphate rock or boneblack. This 
“rock” is a mineral substance found in 
South Carolina, Florida and other States. 
It is mined or dug out of the ground, 
crushed and powdered, and then treated 
with acid to dissolve the phosphoric 
acid. It would take too long here to 
explain the theories often advanced as 
to the origin of these beds or mines of 
phosphate. It is enough for our present 
purpose to know how they can best be 
used to feed the plant. 
Boneblack is bone charcoal, and cor¬ 
responds to charcoal from wood. It is 
used as a filter in sugar making, to take 
the color and impurities from crude 
sugar. After a certain time at this 
filtering, it loses part of its absorptive 
power, and is then called “spent bone- 
black.” Then it is used for fertilizer. 
As it stands, it is insoluble—more so than 
bone ash, because of the carbon in it— 
just as powdered charcoal would be less 
soluble than wood ashes, though both 
came from wood. Sulphuric acid applied 
to the boneblack, turns it into a super¬ 
phosphate, as in the case of the rock. 
The phosphoric acid in the ground fish, 
is chiefly from the bones, and as weak 
acid is often sprinkled over the fish to 
hinder decay, these bones are softened 
and partly dissolved. Cotton-seed meal 
is an organic substance, and the phos¬ 
phoric acid it contains is certainly as 
available as that in bone. The same is 
true of tankage, which is a name given 
to the sediment left in tanks where the 
meat scrap and bone are cooked to re¬ 
move the fat. 
Basic slag is a by-product in the manu¬ 
facture of steel. Iron ores contain more 
or less phosphorus—an undesirable thing 
in the metal. In recent years, a simple 
process has been devised for getting rid 
of this phosphorus. The ore is heated 
to a molten state, and placed in a “ con¬ 
verter,” through which a blast of air is 
forced. A quantity of lime is thrown 
into the molten ore. The phosphoric 
acid unites with the lime to form phos¬ 
phate of lime, and thus takes itself out 
of the iron—which runs off by itself. 
“Basic slag,” sometimes called “iron 
phosphate” or “ odorless phosphate,” is 
the phosphate of lime made in this way 
with the other impurities of the ore. It 
contains quite a little quicklime, and 
some iron and steel. It cannot well be 
used to make a superphosphate because 
the lime and iron would cause it to “ re¬ 
vert ” about as fast as the phosphate was 
made soluble. It is used in a finely- 
ground state, and gives considerably bet¬ 
ter results than raw ground phosphate 
rock or spent boneblack. It is likely to 
be of most use on soils needing lime for 
the different purposes we outlined some 
weeks ago We would prefer it for grain 
or grass, and would expect best results 
on moist soils, or those containing con¬ 
siderable acid. It might do well on a 
corn crop planted on sod. It is evidently 
not soluble enough for quick-growing 
crops like vegetables or potatoes. In Ger¬ 
many, farmers use a good deal of this 
slag mixed with kainit. 
We have now run hastily through the 
forms in which phosphoric acid is usually 
bought. First in value is pure ground 
bone. This is the most expensive form— 
soluble phosphoric acid can be bought in 
superphosphates at less money per pound. 
The chief advantages claimed for bone, 
are that its phosphoric acid is in such 
form that water cannot wash it away, 
while mature plants can readily obtain 
it. There is no danger that it will con¬ 
tain any excess of injurious acid. It con¬ 
tains nitrogen, and the decay of its or¬ 
ganic substances in the soil, tend not 
only to set free nitrogen, but to render 
phosphoric acid more available. 
Hens “ Bohn Good.” —If C. M. W., page 194, will 
cut down his morning feed at least one-third, and 
increase the grain fed, making the hens scratch 
for it, he may come out better. A good rule is to 
feed only what they will eat voraciously, or until 
they begin to sort over and pick out tidbits; for, if 
fed all they wish, they will not be active enough 
during the day. But feed pretty well at night. Mr. 
Herrick’s remarks about cows being born good, 
apply to hens, and our friend may yet reach 168 
eggs if he will get some of Mr. Wyckoffs’s Leg¬ 
horns. I have some of his hens that repeatedly 
lay five and six eggs—eggs as big as duck eggs—in 
seven days. a. m. a. 
^iis'ccllanrou# SMmti&inn. 
HER ENTRANCE 
—into society, and womanhood as well, is 
an extremely critical period in every girl’s 
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TERRIBLE PAIN AND FAINTING SPELLS. 
Mcckanicsburgh , Cumberland Co., Pa. 
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would advise all ladies 
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“Favorite Prescription.’’ 
Yours truly. 
Mrs. SAMUKL A. JACOBS. 
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