| white crop of the series. 
te Ps ss SA sn sr AEP ah SN EE ONCE ST INSEE AE 
| worst bone-dust they ever used.” 
478 
such cases, it is, in a great degree, prodigally 
wasted. The average quantity of all conditions, 
stated in the report of the Doncaster Association, 
is 39 bushels; and the quantity of the powdered 
varieties, as there stated, ranges from a little less 
than 20 bushels to something upwards of 30. 
But the most approved practices in England 
appear to give from 25 to 30 bushels of half-inch 
bones, and about 20 bushels of bone-dust. In 
general, about 25 bushels of any medium variety 
is quite sufficient for producing a good crop of 
turnips, and exerting a fertilizing power over a 
subsequent rotation, on poor light sandy soil ; 
and any quantity above this which may, in any 
| case, be thought desirable, ought to be applied at 
some future period, as a preparation for some 
But, says a writer in 
Vol. ix. p. 103 of the Quarterly Journal of Agri- 
culture, “we Have universally in Scotland a no- 
| tion that the half, at least, of the turnips raised 
by means of bone-dust ought to be eaten off by 
sheep; for, without such assistance from other 
manure, we conceive the bone-dust would have 
_ too much to do of itself ia supporting all the crops 
during the rotation. This being the notion in 
Scotland, the practice originating from it is, that 
| never more than sixteen bushels generally, though 
some farmers apply twenty bushels, is applied to 
the imperial acre. We have also a notion in 
| Scotland, that bone-dust has a caustic quality, 
and that considerably more than sixteen bushels 
| to the acre on light soils, would do more harm 
than good. We have ourselves experimentally 
tried the effects of different quantities of bone- 
dust in raising turnips on light gravelly soil, 
from twelve to twenty-five bushels per imperial 
acre, and found the crop improve decidedly to 
sixteen bushels, but not in the least beyond that 
quantity. So far, therefore, as the turnip crop 
was concerned, any quantity above the sixteen 
bushels was thrown away.” “Bones,” says the 
Rev. Mr. Rham, “have been drilled with wheat 
at the rate of 30 bushels of bones and 24 of wheat 
per acre, and a good crop (twenty-four bushels 
per acre) has been obtained on very poor soil ; 
while portions of the same field sown without 
any bones, in order to ascertain the effect, did 
not produce sufficient plants to cover the ground 
or return the seed.” 
A wide difference, or rather a complete con- 
trast, of opinion exists among farmers as to 
whether newly-crushed or old-crushed bone-man- 
ure be the best; some asserting that they never 
have good turnips except from newly-crushed 
bone-dust, and others, that the best turnips they 
ever had were from old bone-dust. “Both in- 
stances,” remarks Mr. Halkett, “may be true; 
but at the same time it may also be true, that 
both, from season and management, may have 
the best crop of turnips they ever had, with the 
We must look 
| beyond the conflict of practical opinion to one or 
two unquestionable facts respecting the manure 
BONE-MANURE. 
itself, in order to know the relative value of the 
old and the new. All newly-crushed bone-man- 
ure, however dry, heats and ferments with a 
rapidity and a violence proportioned to the de- 
gree of moisture and of heat in the heap; and in 
general, it rises in temperature and in ferment- 
ing action till about the fifth or the eighth day, 
and then slowly subsides into a cool and quies- 
cent condition ; and in the process of cooling—in 
consequence partly of evaporation, but chiefly of 
becoming more friable and so losing its sharp 
points as to lie more closely together—it suffers 
a diminution of bulk which, though not observ- 
able by the unpractised eye, can very readily be 
detected by re-measuring. Ifa parcel of bones, 
amounting to 1,000 bushels, be crushed in Febru- 
ary, and not sold till the middle of May, it will 
then measure only about 960 bushels; and while 
a bushel of it when it was newly crushed would 
weigh only 47 pounds, a bushel of it in the mid- 
dle of May will weigh 49 pounds. The purchaser 
of old bone-dust, therefore, unless he pay a pro- 
portionally higher per centage for it, obtains | 
more material for his money than the purchaser 
of newly-crushed bone-dust. The only intrinsic 
difference between the two varieties, also, seems 
to be in favour of the old dust for turnips or for | 
any other purpose which requires speedy evolu- 
tion of the manurial power; for the effect of the 
fermentation is simply to induce nascent decom- | 
position, or to bring the bone-dust into quite or 
very nearly the same state as if it had lain for a | 
short period in the soil. 
Old bone-dust remaining unsold at the close of 
the turnip-sowing season, may sometimes be ob- | 
tained at a somewhat reduced price ; and, when | 
purchased by a farmer, requires a little peculiar | 
treatment for its proper conservation, till the 
next season. If it has been crushed ina previous | 
year, and more than once heated, it possesses 
either a bluish or a yellow tint ; and when exa- 
mined through a microscope, will be found full | 
of small mites. When either this decomposing 
bone-dust, or even comparatively fresh dust of | 
the season, is purchased by a farmer, it ought to 
be laid on a dry floor, in a cool place, as com- 
pletely removed as possible from all access of , 
damp vapour. In consequence of the re-arrange- 
ment of its particles and the admission of air 
into its mass, it will heat after being removed to 
its new place of storage, though not to the same 
degree as on the first occasion ; and for the same 
reasons, it will heat again on every occasion of 
its being turned or much disturbed. When spread 
thin on the floor, it will not heat so much as 
when spread thick ; but, in almost every instance, 
it will send off so much putrescent vapour as to 
rot a wooden floor above it, and damage the 
boarded floor on which it lies. It ought never 
to be kept in bags, for it will speedily destroy 
them, nor in the vicinity of horses or cattle, for 
it will provoke them to restiveness, and perhaps 
incite disease by its disgustingly foetid odour. 
