3a2 QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. [1 May, 1898. 
Except for the loss of combination of wood ash and bone ash nitrogen b 
burning, this home-made fertiliser will accomplish nearly as good results as the — 
famous unleached wood ash and bone meal mixture. 
Green or fresh bones properly ground yield a meal that has a compara- 
tively high feeding value, not only for poultry, but in small doses for all other 
stock. The value of this meal for poultry is no longer questioned, and, where 
a large number of fowls is kept, some one of the various cheap bone-grinding 
machines is in constant use on such material, which is carefully gathered for 
this purpose. Fresh bone contains more nitrogenous matter than old bones 
long exposed to.the weather. Therefore the latter will not have as high a 
feeding value. Still it might pay even to grind old bones for feed, especially 
as any surplus not used for feeding will make a valuable fertiliser. Indeed, 
it would pay at least one person in almost every school district to putin a 
bone-mill, and make a speciality of collecting bones from the neighbourhood, 
or grinding them at custom rates for both feed and fertiliser. 
Bones can also be softened somewhat by composting them with unleached 
ashes. First make a layer of ash 6 inches deep or more, then a layer of 
bone 2 to 4 inches deep, then another layer of ash, &c., finally covering 
with several inches of earth. Leaves, rakings, or other waste about the 
buildings might be put on as a covering also. Make holes with a pointed stick 
at short distances through the pile, and wet it thoroughly with a strong 
solution of lye or house-slops. In the course of six months or so, the compost 
heap may be forked over, and all but the larger bones will be found to be more 
or less softened or dissolved, and even the larger particles can be readily broken — 
with tho fork. 
Bones can also be dissolved with sulphuric acid, but usually it is a nasty 
and unsatisfactory job, and more bother than it isworth. The acid is also bad 
stuff to handle, as it burns the skin or clothes with which it comes in contact. 
A convenient way of using it is as follows :—Set a hogshead a little more than 
halfway into the ground. Weigh the bone, and fill the hogshead to within 
4 or 5 inches of the top. It will hold 400 or 500 lb. of raw bones. To 
each 100 Ib. of bone first add 60 1b. of water, then add 60 1b. of sulphuric acid, 
full strength. Cover at once with the head that was removed from the top of 
the cask. The whole should begin to heat up and soon boil. Let it stand 
twenty-four hours, or until cooled off. Remove the coverina couple of hours, 
and see that the bones are all covered. When cool, stir from the bottom to 
see that the bones are all dissolved. If not, leave for another day or two. | 
Then add five or six pails of water to the mass. Start a compost heap 12 or 14 
feet long and 4 feet wide, with 4 or 6 inches of loam, leaves, or other waste 
vegetable matter at the bottom. Dip from the cask and pour on until the 
compost is soaked. Then add another layer of earth, and dip till the liquid is 
soaked up. If you have any wood ashes, use these in the compost heap. Let 
the whole compost stand for some weeks, when, after being forked over, 1t 
should be comparatively dry, and contain but few large bones, and these 
should be readily broken up. Often, however, the quality of acid or the. 
proportion of water used is such that the bones are not fully dissolved, and the 
whole job is a disappointment. d 
The latter method of using whole bones—ihat is, where they are not 
burned— gives us a compost of mixture that contains a goodly proportion of 
lime and phosphoric acid, and a little nitrogen in a more or less inert or slow- 
acting form. To make a well-balanced fertiliser, add to the compost 10 
to 20 lb. of high-grade muriate of potash (or three times as much 
low-grade potash salts or kainit) to every i00 lb. of bone ‘used in the 
compost, thus supplying its deficiency in potash. If you want to add some 
nitrogen in’a quick-acting form, to give young plants a quick start until 
they can be fed by the siower acting nitrogen supplied by the bone, add, 
say, 20 lb. nitrate of soda or sulphate of ammonia, or rather more dried blood, 
to every 100 lb. of bone. These articles may be added to the pile as it is being 
' forked oyer, or they can be broadcasted upon the land to which the compost is 
