476 
BONE-MANURE. 
and it proved an utter failure; and I am led to | land, it certainly was not worth more than 106s. 
believe that it is the small quantity of bones in | an acre; and though so long a period has elapsed 
it that sometimes raises the crop without any as- 
sistance from the lime whatever.” Old mortar 
or plaster lime is also used; but it is inodorous 
and absolutely useless; and should it happen to 
be not thoroughly pulverized, it may easily be 
detected by its admixture of hair. Soap-boiler’s 
waste is likewise employed ; and it is powdery, of 
a bluish-white colour, and probably acts no other- 
wise on the soil than by imparting a slight de- 
gree of alkaline matter. The refuse of bone-dust 
from the manufacture of sal-ammoniac is also oc- 
casionally employed; and, like the refuse lime of 
tanneries, it has pungent properties, and is apt, 
in some seasons, to burn the seed. Saw-dust, 
slaked lime, rotten wood, and various other in- 
gredients are used; but, in general, are more 
easily detected than those already named. Hvery 
purchaser of crushed bones, and especially of 
bone-dust, who has not an opportunity of watch- 
ing the process of manufacture, ought to make a 
thorough examination of any quantity submitted 
to his inspection. 
Bone-manure has been applied, with great suc- 
cess, as a top-dressing for grass lands. In this 
case, it must be sown by the hand broadcast, in 
the same manner as corn; and either applied in 
the state of powder if the land is soon to be sub- 
jected to the scythe, or applied in pieces of the max- 
imum size of a walnut if sufficient time is to be al- 
lowed for crumbling down by decomposition. It 
suits ill upon clover of the first year, or even upon 
grass of not more than the third year after tillage ; 
and, when applied to old grass lands, it must be 
used in a considerably larger proportion than is 
suitable for tillage cropping. Upwards of 600 
acres of pasture land upon one estate in Cheshire 
have, within the last thirteen years, been raised, 
by the application of bone-manure, from a value 
of from 10s. to 15s. to a value of from 30s. to 40s. 
The cost of the application has been about £10 
per acre; and 7 per cent. of it is added to the 
rent payable by the tenants. The manure is ap- 
plied in pieces about the size of walnuts, in quan- 
tities of from 30 to 35 cwt. per acre, and never 
upon land which has been in grass for a less pe- 
riod than seven years. It is most successful on 
old sour sward with a clay subsoil; it never fails 
upon any strong sward which is free from surface 
water ; and it is also advantageous, though not to 
| the same degree or with the same unfailing uni- 
formity, upon dry friable pasture with a sandy 
substratum. “The end of April,” says the re- 
porter ofthe Cheshire case, “ I consider the best 
time to apply bones: no stock ought to be put 
upon the land before the following spring. If the 
land is not too poor to produce a crop of hay, I 
do not object to its being mown the first year, 
but on no account afterwards. It is now twenty 
_ years since I first saw bone-dust applied to pas- 
ture land, ona field adjoining Lord Combermere’s 
_ estate. At the time the bones were put upon the 
since the field was manured with bones, it is now 
worth 35s. an acre, though I think the land is 
not quite so good as it was five years ago. I con- 
sider bones the cheapest of all manure for mow- 
ing-grounds. Hight years ago, I manured part of 
one of my mowing-fields with bones, 35 cwt. to 
the acre; the land has produced me a good crop 
of hay every year since, quite equal to the other 
part of the field, which had been manured with 
good farm-yard dung every two years. Once in 
eight or nine years is quite enough to manure 
mowing-lands with bones; and I am quite certain 
that pasture land on which bones have been ap- 
plied never will (so long as it remains in grass) 
return to the state it was in before the bones 
were put on.” As a general rule, bone-manure 
is best applied to dry pasture, whether natural or 
artificial, in spring; but to meadow land, the 
growth of which has been fed off, it is best ap- 
plied at the earliest possible moment after the | 
cattle are removed. Yet this rule is subject to 
exceptions, occasioned by the state of the land 
and the character of the season; for if the mea- 
dow land be wet, either habitually or from the 
unusual prevalence of rains, the application of 
the manure t6 it ought to be postponed till the 
ground becomes dry and the weather warm. 
Bone-manure has been variously applied, with 
great success, as a preparation for wheat and 
other tillage crops; but, by universal observation, | 
it is found to operate with the most eminent ad- | 
vantage, as to both its immediate and its more re- 
mote effects, when used for turnips at the com- 
mencement of a rotation. It is sometimes spread 
broadcast, but is much more generally drilled in | 
with a machine. When spread broadcast, if it be 
in a state of decay or of complete readiness for 
operating on the soil, it is, in very many instances, | 
harrowed in with the last ploughing or imme- 
diately previous to the sowing; but, if in a fresh 
state, without having been boiled or fermented, 
it ought to be allowed to lie a sufficient time. 
upon the surface of the ground, to subject it to 
incipient decomposition, and fit it for developing | 
its powers upon the nascent crop. Some very in- 
telligent farmers prefer the broadcast method for | 
the reasons, that the turnip plants receive much 
more nourishment through the side-radicles than 
through the tap-root, and will therefore be better 
fed by broadcast than by drilled bone-manure,— 
that a serious difficulty exists in mixing drilled 
manure with the soil by after-ploughing,—and 
that, although this difficulty is lessened by cross- 
ploughing the ridges, yet the stripes of land be- 
tween the drills never receive their due propor- 
tion of benefit. A medium method is practised 
by some farmers, of first sowing the manure 
broadcast, and then gathering it into ridges with 
the mould-plough. But general experience, based 
on thousands or even myriads of experiments in 
all the best farming districts of Great Britain, 
