1848. 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
267 
awhile to ferment. It was the result of trials made 
by thirteen different persons, and which are recorded in 
the Doncaster Report, that a given weight of bones, 
when mixed and fermented with farm yard manure, in¬ 
variably produced a more beneficial effect, than the 
same weight of dry-bone dust, applied to the same 
crop and upon the same soil. 
The advantage which results from these several me¬ 
thods, arises from the effects which they produce, either 
in diminishing the mechanical coherence of the parti¬ 
cles of the bone, or in altering by incipient decomposi¬ 
tion, the chemical state of the organic matter it con¬ 
tains. None of them, however, sufficiently effect these 
objects, though I do not doubt that fine bone-dust, fer¬ 
mented for two or three months with farm-yard manure, 
and occasionally turned over, would be brought into a 
condition more nearly approaching to guano in its fer¬ 
tilizing virtue, than any other form of bones which has 
hitherto been generally employed. 
Decomposing and Dissolving Bones by means of 
Sulphuric Acid. —But another mode of preparing 
bones has recently been introduced, and for two or three 
years has been extensively employed as a part of the 
ordinary husbandry, especially by some of the Scottish 
farmers. This mode consists in decomposing, and more 
or less dissolving bones in sulphuric acid, (oil of vitriol.) 
This may be done in various ways, and the prepared 
bones may either be applied in a liquid state with a wa¬ 
tering cart, or may be dried and sowed with a drilling 
machine, or broadcast, like ordinary bone or rape 
dust. 
a. The bones in the form of bone dust, or where 
bone mills are not at hand, simply broken in pieces with 
a hammer, may be put into a cast iron, stone, earthen 
ware, or strong wooden vessel, mixed with half their 
weight of boiling water, and then with half their weight 
of the strong oil of vitriol of the shops, stirring con¬ 
stantly while the latter is slowly poured in. A power¬ 
ful boiling up takes place, which gradually subsides. 
By occasional stirring, the whole assumes the ap¬ 
pearance of a thick paste, the pieces of bone gradual¬ 
ly disappear, and after a week or ten days the whole 
may be taken out and mixed with a little charcoal pow¬ 
der, charred peat, saw dust or fine dry earth, to make 
it dry enough to pass through the drill, and may thus 
be immediately applied to the land. It would, howev¬ 
er, be better to prepare the bones a month at least, be¬ 
fore using them and lay them up in aheap for a while, 
with a view to their more perfect decomposition. When 
the pieces of bone are large, this is especially desirable, 
as otherwise they will not be fully decomposed without 
a larger addition of both water and acid. 
b. Or the acid and bones as above, may, after a cou¬ 
ple of days, be mixed with a quantity of light, friable, 
soil, and laid up into a heap for seven or eight weeks, 
with occasional turning. The bones thus heat, deeom 
pose and dry up, so as to be ready for putting into the 
drills without further preparation. This method , how¬ 
ever, requires more acid, and it is not unusual in em¬ 
ploying it, to take equal weights of acid and bones. It 
may be, some practical men, indeed, employ invariably 
equal weights of acid and bones, while others are sat¬ 
isfied by mixing the bones with one-third or even one- 
fourth of their weight of acid. I would myself em¬ 
ploy not less than a-half. 
c. Or equal weights of bones in the form of dust, of 
boiling water and of acid* may be mixed together and 
occasionally stirred for a week or ten days, and wdien 
the particles ol bone have nearly disappeared, from 50 
to 100 times more water may be added to the mixture, 
and the liquid thus diluted may be applied by a water 
cart. If it is to be used upon grass land in the spring, 
* A gallon of water weiabs 10 Um., a gallon of acid 17 or 13 tbs.' 
or to young corn, it w T ill be safer to dilute it with 200 
waters, but fifty waters, (by weight,) will be enough 
if it is applied to the turnep drills. A common water¬ 
ing cart used for other liquid manures, will serve for 
the former purpose—for applying it to the drills, a very 
ingenious addition of tubes to this cart has been con¬ 
trived by Mr. WagstafF, and employed by him under the 
direction of the Duke of Richmond, at Gordon castle. 
This method of applying bones in the liquid form, is, 
no doubt, the most perfect, but it is also the most trou¬ 
blesome and expensive, and may not, therefore, come 
so soon into general use, though it may ultimately 
prove the most profitable. 
Instead of sulphuric acid, the muriatic acid or spirits 
of salt, has been, indeed was first, tried for the disso¬ 
lution of bones, but the former appears at present, for 
several reasons, to be preferred. 
Comparative Effects of Dissolved Bones. —The 
first experiments with dissolved bones were made in 1841 
by Mr. Fleming of Barochan. The result is published in 
the appendix to my published Lectures on agricultural 
Chemistry and Geology , p. 28. He dissolved bones by 
means of muriatic acid anjd applied them to moss oats. 
In his report to me, published as above, he says: “I 
examined them a few days before they were cut, and 
was much satisfied with their appearance. The straw 
appeared as stiff and shining, and the ear was as well, 
filled, as if it had been grown upon stiff loam, and I 
consider the same dressing , (he had applied it as a top 
dressing sown broad cast upon the young corn) applied 
to grain crops upon moss will insure a good crop and 
well filled oats.” In 1842, he made many additional 
experiments, which hp was kind enough to communicate 
to me for publication in my lectures. Those upon oats 
confirmed the results of 1841, but I quote only the fol¬ 
lowing comparative results from the appendix, p. 8 . 
The turnpes and potatoes were raised with bone alone, 
without other manure. 
Produce from an Imperial Acre. 
Dry Bone Dust. Bones in Muriatic Acid. 
16 cwt. 18 cwt. 4 cwt. 10 cwt. 
Tons. Cwts. Tons. Cwts. Tons Cwts. Tons. Cwts. 
Swede Turnep, 14 17 — — — — 18 11 
Red Don Potatoes, — — 9 15 12 15 — — 
Both of these results, as I have observed, were great 
ly in favor of dissolved bones. In the case of the pota¬ 
toes he found the produce a little augmented by the ad¬ 
dition of wood ashes. 
Since that time, tiumerous experiments with dissolved 
bones have been made in Scotland. In Fifeshire, crops 
of turneps have been raised at a cost of not more than 
8 s. or 10s. per acre. In Ayrshire, Mr. Tennant of 
Shields, as early as 1842, used as much as 200 bushels 
of bones on his own farm, prepared as above described, 
( 6 .) and he found bushels to be equal in effect to 2 
cwt. Peruvian guano. In 1843, a premium offered by 
the Morayshire Farmer’s Club caused numerous expe¬ 
riments to be made in that county. I have given an 
abstract of the very important results of these experi¬ 
ments in the 4th edition of my Elements of Agricul¬ 
tural Chemistry , p. 155, and the report has since been 
published in full in the Journal of the Royal Agricultu¬ 
ral Society, p. 447. In 1844, the premiums of the 
Highland and Agricultural Society led to many other 
experiments; the results of which, made in different 
ways and upon different soils, are published in their 
Transactions for 1844. These general conclusions are, 
1 . That four , and in some cases, even two bushels of 
dissolved bones will produce as good a crop of turneps 
as sixteen or twenty bushels applied in the usual form. 
The crops also start more quickly and grow more ra¬ 
pidly. 
2. That the more complete the state of solution or 
subdivision of the bones, the greater the effect; Hence, 
