40 
DOW ESTIC ECONOMY. 
RURAL ANI) DOMESTIC ECONOMY. 
Bone-Dust for Cultivation of Grain. —The exportation of bones from 
Germany to England constitutes a singular epoch in the annals of commerce. 
Myriads of tons have been already exported without glutting the market, or 
causing a cessation of the demand. In the vicinity of the north sea, mills have 
been erected to pulverise them. This bone powder, or bone dust, was long ago 
exclusively applied to the purposes of hot houses by German horticulturists ; but 
the English, emboldened by their riches, have extended its use to general objects 
of agriculture, and fertilize by these expensive means, their cold, humid and 
poorest land ; and have thus brought the uplands of Nottinghamshire, the wes¬ 
tern parts of Holderness, &c. into the highest state of cultivation, both in point 
of extent and iutenseness of fertility. There is consequently, a proverb, “ that 
one ton of German bone-dust saves the importation of ten tons of German corn.” 
As Malta formerly covered her naked rocks with foreign soil, so does England 
now fertilize her clay and sandy heaths with German bones. Near the sea-coast 
even the church yards are robbed of their venerable relics, which is only ironi¬ 
cally excused by rendering the German bone trade popular. An agriculturist, 
being rendered attentive by this exportation, instituted privately some compara¬ 
tive experiments, the results of which prove that bone dust acts in the cultivation 
of grain as compared to the best stable manure : First in respect to the quality 
of corn as 7 to 5; secondly, in respect to quantity as 5 to 4; thirdly, in respect 
to durability of the energy of soils as 3 to 2. It produces several collateral ad¬ 
vantages: First, it destroys weeds: secondly, It diminishes the necessity of suf¬ 
fering the land to be fallow; thirdly, this concentrated manure, or substitute 
for manure, is more easy of conveyance, less laborious to spread, and can with 
facility be applied to the steepest vineyards, or other inaccessible lands, either in 
mountainous countries or in wet meadow land: fourthly, it renders agriculture 
practicable without cattle breeding, grazing, &c.— Rep. Pat. Invent. 
1 he Turnip Fly. —Mr. Berry ascribes his success in this department of ruraj 
management, first to sowing seed of one year’s growth, which secures simultane¬ 
ous vegetation, and defies the fly, the plants being numerous. Seedsmen too 
frequently mix the seed of different years, in consequence of which it comes out 
of the ground at various periods, and in such quantities, that the fly easily over¬ 
powers the crop. Second, thick sowing. It is much easier to cut out than to 
insert a plant. I bird, sown immediately after the manure is ploughed in, by 
which the advantage of the moisture is secured. In showery weather, he finds 
an advantage in steeping the seeds in water, bnt if the weather be dry, steeping 
is injurious, the contrast being too great between the water and a dry hot state of 
the earth, and the plants come up yellow and sickly.— Rep. of Invent. 
Experiments upon Milk. M. DirchofF, the Russian chemist, who some 
time since discovered the process of making starch into sugar, has lately made 
several experiments upon milk, the result at which he has arrived is curious. He 
is said to have found a mode of keeping milk for use, for any definite space of 
