BONE-MANURE. 
any other purpose; and the distribution upon 
land of so voluminous a quantity of liquid as 26 
cwt. of dilution for every 58 lbs. of bone-dust, 
cannot be effected at any time without much 
trouble, and may, at the busy season of turnip- 
sowing, occasion serious derangement of the 
routine business of the farm. “ From experience 
of these difficulties,” says Mr. Shier, “I was led 
some years ago to try a dry preparation of bone- 
dust with sulphuric acid; and this dry prepara- 
|| tion has been found to combine so many advan- 
| tages, that it is now very generally adopted in 
| the county of Aberdeen. For making this pre- 
paration, the finest bone-dust is employed. Dust 
|| prepared from bones from the north of Europe 
|| may be got, by sifting, of the weight of 58 lbs. 
|| per bushel; but as the dry bones from the south 
readily yield it of the weight of 75 lbs., the latter 
is of course to be preferred. Any convenient 
| quantity of dust is laid in an oblong heap on a 
_ flagstone floor, a depression is made in the top of 
the heap, and one-fourth part of its weight of 
| concentrated sulphuric acid is added in small 
| quantities at a time, the mass being thoroughly 
turned and mixed, by means of wooden shovels, 
after each addition of acid. Alternately with 
each portion of. acid, as much water is added. 
When the whole acid and water have been added, 
and the mixture is completed, the mass is hot. 
and somewhat moist; after lying in the heap for 
a day or two, it becomes quite dry, and is fit for 
sowing, either by hand or machine. The quan- 
tity of sulphuric acid in this mixture is but half 
| that used in the liquid way, but it has been as- 
certained by many trials, that any increase above 
the quantity recommended is not so economical ; 
| _ and indeed where, as occasionally happens, sifted 
bone-dust cannot be obtained, a farther diminu- 
tion may be made with advantage. Concentrated 
sulphuric acid has been specified, but in places 
where only unconcentrated acid is made, it is 
| cheaper to use that, a proportionally greater 
weight being employed. The value of the acid 
is of course determined by the hydrometer ; and 
it should be of the kind made from sulphur, and 
not from pyrites, as the latter generally contains 
a large quantity of arsenic. Although of this 
dry preparation a larger dose is required than of 
the wet one, the advantages attendant on its use 
render it, on the whole, a cheaper preparation. 
Some of its advantages are that it is prepared by 
the manufacturer, who can go to a better market 
for all the materials than the farmer, and, from 
conducting the operation on a large scale, can 
make it of better quality, both from the employ- 
ment of suitable machinery, and from the skill 
acquired by the workmen; and further, the ex- 
pense of carriage and application to the land is 
not greater than that of an equal weight of un- 
prepared bone-dust.” 
Except on land which contains a large propor- 
tion of organic matter, either the liquid or the 
481 
ought to be applied for turnips, only in accom- 
paniment with a moderate quantity of farm-yard 
manure. When the turnips are to be succeeded 
by winter wheat, indeed, the preparation of bone- 
dust and sulphuric acid may be administered 
alone, in order to force the turnips into rapid 
and vigorous growth, and to hurry them onward 
to speedy maturity ; but when the land is not to 
be cropped till spring, the accompaniment of 
some such slowly decomposing substance as farm- 
yard manure is in a greater or less degree indis- 
pensable, especially in a dry and hot season, for 
preventing an arrest upon the growth of the tur- 
nip bulbs before they arrive at their due size and 
weight. Five or six bushels of the dry prepara- 
tion per acre, given in accompaniment with ten 
tons of farm-yard manure, have been found, from 
comparative trials on all kinds of turnip soils, to 
produce four or five tons more of turnip bulbs 
than can, in any equal circumstances, be obtain- 
ed from 20 tons of farm-yard manure without 
bone-dust. “The dry preparation,’ says Mr. 
Shier, “has also been found a cheap and very 
efficient special manuring for grain-crops and 
grass. When used for grain crops, the best re- 
sults have been got when it was applied to a 
grain crop immediately succeeding a green-crop 
grown after farm-yard manure alone; and here 
too the same tendency to bring the plants early 
to maturity is manifested, the grain being ready 
for reaping fully a fortnight before portions of 
the same crop dressed with other manures; the 
weight of the grain per bushel being increased, 
and the straw firm and healthy. Bone-dust, 
with sulphuric acid, has also been found to an- 
swer well for potatoes, especially when mixed 
with a little sulphate of magnesia.” 
Bone-manure is by no means equally suitable 
for all kinds of soils, but confers superlative ad- 
vantage on one kind, medium advantage on 
another, and little or no advantage on another, 
An experimental trial, recorded by Mr. Sinclair, 
in a letter to the secretary of the Highland So- 
ciety, states that it proved eminently fertilizing, 
not only for turnips but for the subsequent crops 
of a rotation, upon silicious soil, and that it pro- 
duced scarcely any perceptible effect upon cal- 
careous stony soil, while stable-yard manure 
upon the latter was eminently fertilizing. Four 
hundred parts of the silicious soil to which it 
proved most highly advantageous were ascer- 
tained by analysis to comprise 167 parts of fine 
silicious sand, 43 of calcareous sand, 99 of water 
of absorption, 24 of decomposing animal and ve- 
getable matter, destructible by fire, 25 of impal- 
pable carbonate of lime, 23 of silica, 9 of alumina, 
3 of oxide of iron, 5 of soluble animal and vege- 
table matter, principally vegetable extract, with 
indications of muriate of soda, and 2 of moisture 
and loss; and four hundred parts of the soil on 
which it did not appear to produce any benefit, 
comprised 217 parts of calcareous sand and gravel, 
nearly pure carbonate of lime, 17 of decomposing 
2 H 
dry preparation of bone-dust with sulphuric acid 
1s 
