604 
'V H K RUR-A.L NEW -YORKER 
April 17, 1915. 
Using Bones on the Farm 
When I began farming for profit (for 
I am a back-to-the-lander) m.v atten¬ 
tion was at once drawn to the use of 
bones as a fertilizer. As a first experi¬ 
ment I filled a tight barrel with alternate 
layers of wood ashes from the kitchen 
stove and bones, putting ashes at the 
bottom and ending with ashes on top. 
The layers were from three to four inches 
thick. Then I poured in water until the 
barrel would hold no more. This was 
done in the Spring, April I think. The 
mass was wetted several times during 
the Summer, and more ashes added as 
it settled. In the Fall the bones were so 
far dissolved that I could drive the shovel 
through them easily and I spread the 
stuff—it was sticky—in little wads, as 
far as it would go, on the garden. There 
it was dried by means of the dry soil 
and eventually it was evenly distributed 
with a rake. Where a family uses wood 
for fuel and there are no more bones than 
an ordinary farm produces this is, I 
think, as good a plan as any. 
Next I tried filling a barrel with bones 
and then pouring in water to cover them, 
with two 10-cent cans of caustic potash 
dissolved in the water. I was then using 
coal for fuel, and had no wood ashes.. In 
the course of six or seven months I found 
the bones ready for distribution on the 
garden. I have since learned that a 
stronger solution of the potash will 
hasten the disintegration of the bones, 
but I do not think the hastening worth 
the cost. 
I should still be using the slow caustic 
method but for what seems to be a bet¬ 
ter plan, that I developed from a recipe 
in use in Europe. This plan is feasible 
for large quantities of bones. In Europe, 
where labor is cheap, a trench is dug 
and a three-inch layer of bones laid in 
the bottom. Over this fresh horse ma¬ 
nure is placed and trodden down until 
it is a foot deep. On top of this is placed 
another layer of bones followed by one 
of manure, and so on till the trench is 
full. The manure is then well saturated 
with water after which it is covered with 
a foot of soil. A second watering in 
the course of a week follows. At the 
•>nd of a year the bones will be found 
rotted, and when mixed with the manure 
and soil lying over them, a first-class com¬ 
post is in hand. 
As this plan involves much work with 
a shovel I modified it as follows: When 
l began hauling manure from the city 
stables—chiefly from stables where one 
or two horses only were kept—I observed 
that some housewives threw the bones 
and other table refuse on the manure 
heap rather than hold them for the gar¬ 
bage man who comes twice a week. This 
manure I haul in the Winter, late Fall 
and early Spring, but a load is hauled, 
now and then, as occasion is afforded, dur¬ 
ing the Summer. The manure hauled m 
Summer is spread a foot or so deep *n 
the manure yard. It is always firefanged 
when I get it, and it firefangs more after 
it is brought home. It is therefore worth 
little—say the expense of hauling, which 
is all it costs. Spread in this way, how¬ 
ever, it makes a good foundation for the 
manure heap that is built on it the en¬ 
suing Winter. Moreover it is an excel¬ 
lent foundation on which to spread the 
bones that have been accumulated dur¬ 
ing the year before. When the Winter’s 
hauling is begun the fresh manure is 
spread over the bones first of all, and the 
Fall rains and early snows wet the mass. 
Some heating is desirable, but as the snow 
comes on I occasionally shovel enough 
of it on the heap to make a blanket sev¬ 
eral inches deep, as the pile grows 
deeper—it is eventually from four to five 
feet high—and the snow blanket is added 
often enough to prevent all heating :»n 
top at least. 
Of course after the middle of March 
so little snow falls that there is a little 
firefanging on top. But in the meantime, 
after six or seven months of heating and 
soaking and putrefying at the bottom of 
the heap, those bones have begun to dis¬ 
integrate, and they are spread with the 
manure, and plowed under. They are 
not so well softened that a man can slide 
a shovel through them, but when plowed 
in they afford nourishment to the roots 
that reach them, and in the course of two 
years, in rich soil, they rot away. 
Observe, now, that this plan utilizes 
bones that would be otherwise wasted. It 
is a cheap plan where one must get the 
manure in any event. It affords some 
bone food to the crop that is immediately 
planted on the mixture, and it serves to 
feed the soil as well as the first crop. 
Another plan, developed in Europe, con¬ 
sists of mixing bones with quicklime, two 
bushels of lime to a bushel of bones, put¬ 
ting the bones in layers under the layers 
of lime; a six-inch layer of bones under 
a foot of quicklime would make a proper 
heap. This heap is then to be covered 
with a foot of soil (more work with a 
shovel!) after which holes are punched 
down through the soil and water is poured 
in until the lime is slaked. The heap at 
once heats itself to a high temperature, 
and it remains hot for from six to 10 
weeks. I should have tried this plan long 
ago but for the cost of the fresh lime. I 
get all the lime I need from the vats of 
a tannery, and it costs only the price 
of hauling. If I had to buy lime, how- 
ever, I should buy the caustic variety, 
pile on the bones and then after 10 weeks 
or more, spread the mixture. I would 
make the pile under sash, meantime, so 
as to utilize the heat for a hotbed. 
Little Falls, N. Y. J. R. S. 
R. N.-Y.—We assume that .1. R. S. 
refers to the smaller and softer bones 
and not to the tough, large bones of leg 
and shoulders. We have not been able 
to “reduce” these large bones without 
smashing them up in some wmy. 
Burning the Pasture. 
Regarding that discussion on page 521. 
So much depends upon the nature of the 
herbage now on the level and the kind of 
stock desired to be pastured that it is 
only a guess that can be made. Suc{i ne¬ 
glected fields are quite apt to be filled 
with goldenrod and other perennials, and 
burning does them no harm. Another 
thing, burning such tract off leaves noth¬ 
ing of manurial value; even the ashes 
are mostly carried away. If sheep are to 
be the stock pastured and they are put 
on early enough and more put on than 
the land oan support, and they are giv¬ 
en a little supplemental food, they will 
subdue most weeds and gradually bring 
in better grasses and improve the pas¬ 
ture. But if neat cattle are to be pas¬ 
tured thej' will do nothing toward eating 
out undesirable and bringing in a 
better class of plants. If your corres¬ 
pondent is looking for most returns for 
this year and with no idea of improving 
the pasture, I think he would best burn 
the land over and then run over it with , 
a sharp Cutaway harrow or even with ‘‘S^ 25 
spike-tooth harrow. j. s. woodward. 
“Jones,” said an hotel manager to a 
waiter, “what did that gent from table 
No. 7 leave so suddenly for?” “Well, 
sir,” said the waiter, “he sat down and 
asked for sausages, and I told him we 
were out of them ; but if he would care 
to wait for a minute I could get the cook 
to make some.” “Well,” said the man¬ 
ager, “what then?” “I went to the 
kitchen,” resumed the waiter, “and acci¬ 
dentally trod upon the dog’s tail, and of 
course it yelped out. And suddenly the 
gent got up and left”—Melbourne 
Leader. 
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