Vol. LXIII, No. 2853. NEW YORK, OCTOBER 1, 1904. ;i per yeah. 
BRIEF FERTILIZER TALKS. 
Two Fertilizers; Preparing Bones. 
Is it possible to make a fertilizer that analyzes 2—10—2Vi, 
and another analyzing 1%—9—2, the latter being of more 
crop value than the first? The first named goods I can buy 
for about one-fourth less than the latter. I have used the 
first named last season with good results, and the other we 
have used for a number of years with equally good results. 
Let me know If there is any method that I could employ to 
prepare bones for fertilizer, as I get a big number on hand, 
(he butcher bringing out his refuse. E. L. E. 
New Oxford, Pa. 
Yes; it would be possible to use coarse tankage to 
supply the nitrogen in one case and nitrate of soda and 
dried blood in the other. In that case the fertilizer 
containing the blood and nitrate would be worth more 
than the other for most crops. It is not likely, how¬ 
ever, that either mixture contains either nitrate or 
blood. They both probably consist of tankage or 
ground fish, acid phosphate and muriate of potash. 
They are both what is called low-grade goods, and are 
not likely to prove very satisfactory unless you know 
that your soil does not need nitrogen and potash. We 
would buy the one we could get for least money, i here 
is no really satisfactory way of prepar 
ing bones for fertilizer on the farm. 
The fertilizer manufacturers steam the 
bones under high pressure, and then 
crush and grind them with powerful 
machinery. After this the bones are 
often treated with sulphuric acid. We 
do not advise a farmer to use sulphuric 
acid. In some places the bones are 
mixed with wood and burned, the 
ashes being used for fertilizer. This 
wastes the nitrogen. If you have an 
iron kettle or cooker you can boil the 
bones with small potatoes, turnips or 
cabbage. The thick soup thus formed 
mixed with cornmeal or middlings will 
make a good feed for hogs. After 
boiling the bones may be smashed with 
a sledge or ax and packed with un¬ 
leached wood ashes. To do this take 
a box or barrel and put in a six-inch 
layer of broken bones; then a layer of 
wood ashes well packed down; then 
more bones, and so on. Keep the mass 
well soaked by pouring liquid manure 
or house slops on top. In about 100 
days the bones will be softened and 
may be crumbled with a heavy spade. 
They do quite well as fertilizer when 
handled in this way, but are not equal 
to ground bone. This method is only 
little better than burying the entire bones by fruit trees. 
Use of Fertilizers in Ohio. 
The following suggestions are taken from a bulletin 
issued by the Ohio Experiment Station : 
For soils which have been depicted by exhaustive crop¬ 
ping the following system of management is suggested: 
(1) Apply stable manure to land intended for corn, 
using it at the rate of eight to 10 tons per acre. If 
possible, let the manure be taken directly from the 
stable to the field, and if it has been dusted during 
accumulation with acid phosphate or raw phosphate rock 
(floats) its effectiveness will be greatly increased for 
most soils. 
(2) A crop of wheat or oats may follow corn treated 
as above, without further manuring or fertilizing, and 
if clover be seeded with this crop, the clover sod to be 
manured and planted to corn (or potatoes), thus estab¬ 
lishing a rotation in which clover is grown every third 
season in alternation with a manured and cultivated crop, 
the best conditions of fertility recovery will have been 
provided and a gradual increase in productiveness may 
be expected. 
( 3 ) If a second crop of small grain be grown (as 
wheat after oats) it will be necessary to manure again 
or else use a complete fertilizer if the maximum yield is 
obtained. The proportion of ammonia, however, need 
not exceed two or three per cent. Clover should be 
sown with this crop. 
( 4 ) If, for any reason, a third crop of grain be 
grown before clover comes into the rotation it should 
receive a fertilizer containing four to six per cent am 
monia, applied at the rate of 300 to 400 pounds per acre. 
Such cropping is likely to prove less profitable than 
where clover is more frequently grown. 
( 5 ) When clover fails to prosper on land that has 
been liberally manured or fertilized, making a fair stand, 
perhaps, but showing a weak growth after the wheat 
has been taken off and finally dying out altogether in 
spots, the use of lime is indicated. Present indications 
are that lime will produce more clover when applied to a 
crop preceding the wheat Gy one or two seasons than 
when applied to the crop with which the clover is sown. 
No definite quantity of lime can be stated for all condi¬ 
tions, but it is safe to use a ton to the acre. 
(6) If a farmer’s present system of management does 
ONE DAY’S WORK ON A FARM. Fig. 313. 
not provide sufficient stable manure to carry out this 
plan, then it is time to readjust*that system; for the 
Ohio fanner who undertakes to bring up an exhausted 
soil to a profitable state of productiveness through the 
use of commercial fertilizers alone will generally find 
that the margin between cost of production and value 
of crop will leave him a very meager compensation for 
his labor. 
Hay Farming in Maine. 
In 1880 we bought 30 acres of land for the purpose 
of testing fertilizers and establishing our belief in a prac¬ 
tical way as to whether it would pay to use bone meal 
and potash in producing hay on our so-called worn-out 
lands in Maine. After we have had harvested six sue 
cessive crops of hay from the original application of 
bone and potash our belief was confirmed, and from that 
time to this we have bought eight of these farms within 
half a mile to three miles of railroad station. We have 
grown on these farms more than 2,000 tons of hay 
where practically nothing would have been raised if we 
had not plowed up the soil and fertilized the same. We 
are proving every year that an investment of this sort 
where lands can be bought from at $10 to $20 per acre for 
arable land will pay from 12 to 15 per cent for money 
invested year after year. 'I'liis is wholly in the pro¬ 
duction of hay. We usually plow about 50 acres yearly 
of our 300 acres, applying the bone meal and potash, 
usually cutting a crop of oats, which will average to 
pay the fertilizer bill, and the crop of hay on this land 
will hold out from one to one and a half ton per acre 
for six years without any further fertilizing. We have 
always had great faith in the intrinsic values in our 
New England clay loam soil, and the time is nearby 
when these things are going to be very much better than 
they are now. We have bought all of these farms at 
nearly the cost of the buildings, with the land thrown in, 
and in some cases they were bought exceedingly low. 
Three years ago we bought a farm 2(4 miles from a 
railroad station, comprising 65 acres and 45 acres of 
clear, clean clay loam without a rock or stump or 
broken piece, and which 45 acres were plowed within 
two months from the time we bought it. The other 
20 acres constitute all good pasture land, containing a 
few growths of wood, with the sprinkling of some good- 
sized pine lumber. There was an old one-story house 
on the place, small orchard and a good 
barn, with barn cellar 40 x 50 feet in 
size, 15 -foot post, newly shingled, and 
for this farm we paid $ 250 . It was 
on the market some time before we 
learned of it. The barn itself with the 
cellar could not be built for less than 
.$600 to $ 700 . We have had 20 years’ 
experience in growing hay. 
Bowdoinham, Me. w. a k. 
How to Handle Manure. 
I would like to know the proper way 
of taking care of the manure from my 
stable and cow barn in order to gel the 
best results from it. I notice you make 
this remark on page 606 in answer to 
utilizing stable manure : “Yet many farm¬ 
ers throw away the best part of the ma¬ 
nure by letting the rain leach through it." 
My present way of keeping it is to throw 
out the horse manure into a small barn¬ 
yard (40x25). which is formed like a 
basin (natural yellow earth bottom) to 
prevent the liquid from running off. The 
cows, two, are kept in the barnyard over 
night, or have been during the Summer. 
After being brought in later the intention 
is to throw out the cow manure daily on 
to the horse manure. This barnyard is on 
the north side of the stable and barn. I 
would also like your advice regarding the 
best time to draw out thoroughly rotted 
manure on a hillside. Last Fall I bought: 
75 loads of well-rotted manure, which was 
dumped in one-load piles on this hillside 
field, most of it before the ground was frozen, but some after¬ 
wards, and left there to be spread in the Spring. In Feb¬ 
ruary and March we had a number of rains, and it nearly 
broke my heart to see the wash of that hillside form into an 
amber river by the roadside, and go “sailing out to sea.” I 
bought the manure in the Fall on the suggestion that I could 
get it then, whereas if 1 waited until Spring when everyone 
was in the market I might be delayed or even not bo able 
to get it. I now do not think the advice was sound, as my 
place is only 30 miles from i\ew York City, and I think a 
good deal of manure comes in by cars. w. s. k. 
New Jersey. 
The “ideal” way of caring for manure is to keep it 
under a covered shed and over a cement floor, so that 
no extra water can leach through it. The loss by 
leaching will run all the way from 15 to 60 per cent of 
fertilizing value, depending upon the ease with which 
the water washes through the pile. There is more or 
less drainage through any soil, though the hard clays 
will hold most of the liquid. A floor of concrete under 
the manure will pay for itself. We should put some 
roof over the manure in order to regulate the supply 
of moisture. Where cow and horse manures are mixed 
you are not likely to be troubled with heating or fire 
fanging as you would be if the horse manure were kept 
