n 
1 Dec., 1899.] QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. = 525 
situation, he found only a very small silver lining to the very dark cloud 
surrounding him, Two inches of rain had followed the hailstorm. The 
question was, how to make use of that moisture. 
All hands and the cook, as the saying goes, started to work at once, Some 
were trimming, pruning, and tying up vines; others ploughing; others sowing 
and planting; others, again, cutting off the injured cabbage heads, splitting 
crosswise the stems in four quarters, which gave each a small hard head. These 
were sold later on at 1d. a-piece-—making, thus, 4d. per plant, or over £60 per 
acre—probably more than the whole cabbages would have fetched. After a 
week of hard work, the whole farm (over 30 acres) was replanted and in good 
order, and, if anything, my friend had a better crop of everything than most of 
his neighbours who had escaped the hailstorm. 
Floods and droughts, hailstorms and frosts, ticks and fruit fly, and, what is 
often more destructive than all those pests combined, a dishonest dealer in 
produce—all these drawbacks of the farmer can, must, and will be overcome by 
persistent individual and collective efforts. We know that from the beginning 
of the world all these and many other destructive forces have been at work in 
vain. They can retard progress—they cannot stop it! Every year new 
discoveries of the laws of Nature, new inventions in mechanical arts and labour- 
saving appliances, inerease our powers and our chances of success. But they are 
useless unless we are endowed with the moral qualities required to make use 
of them. ‘The life of a farmer is a constant battle and struggle. In that lies 
its moral grandeur and ennobling effects. He has to combat all the destructive 
forces both of Nature and of the human race. He is in the true sense of the 
word a soldier, and like a soldier he must be endowed with a dogged Vetermina- 
tion to be victorious at any price, to never allow himself to be cast down by any 
reverse, for only at such conditions can he fulfil to the letter the Divine com- 
mandment—‘ Conquer the earth and subdue it.” 
REDUCING BONES. 
Mr. A. N. Pearson, Government Agricultural Chemist, Victoria, writes :— 
Bones in country districts, where crushing mills are not available, may be 
reduced by means of caustic lye, quicklime, or freshly calcined wood ashes. 
A simple plan is to pack the bones, layer by layer, with the calcined wood 
ashes, taken fresh from the fire, in a barrel, cover the whole with a thick layer 
of soil, and keep the mixture moistened for some months. Casks may be kept 
in constant use for this purpose on a farm, receiving every few days a fresh 
layer of bones and ashes, removing the layer of soil for the purpose, and freshly 
calcining any old ashes that may have accumulated. 
A quicker method is to boil the bones in an iron or copper boiler with 
strong caustic lye. The proportions of bones and lye are not invariable, but 
may be taken as about 10 Ib. caustic soda or 14 1b. caustic potash, dissolved in 
3 gallons of water, to 30 lb. or 40 1b. of bones. The bones boiled for two or 
three hours in this lye should be completely disintegrated. Even without boiling, 
the lye will, in a week or so, disintegrate the bones. 
Another method of softening bones is to mix them in heaps with quicklime 
and loam, A layer of bones 6 inches deep is made, and on this is placed a 
layer 3 inches thick of quicklime, and then a layer 4 inches deep of loam. 
The layers of bones, lime, and loam are repeated until the heap is of a con- 
yenient height, when it is finally covered with a thick layer of earth. Holes are 
then bored into the heap from the top, and water poured in to slake the lime. 
The mass becomes hot, and will remain so for two or three months, after which 
the bones should be very friable. ‘The whole heap may then be mixed up, and 
used on the ground at the rate of 10 cwt. or 15 cyt. to the acre. : 
