AGRICULTURAL RECORD.

New Zealander, Volume XX, Issue 2068, 19 March 1864, Page 2

AGRICULTURAL RECORD.

SUPERPHOSPHATE OF LIME. (From the Sydney Herald.) When Liebig predicted that in.the remains of an extinct animal world we are to find the means of increasing onr wealth in agricultural produce, he was regarded by many as indulging a fine philosophic fancy ; but enough has already been realised to convince the most sceptical of the importance of the data on which he grounded his opinion. For pasture land, especially the poor kind, there is nothing equal to bone manure, either as regards its permanent effects or the production of a sweet luxurious herbage, of which all cattle are fond. Many thousands of acres of poor land have been covered with this manure dnring the last eight or ten yers. Boiled bones act as long as unboiled, —retaining the phosphhorus, —though not so quickly, having lost their animal matter. The first, the phosphatic manures, arc those in which phosphoric acid is the chief ingredient of these manures superphosphate is the principal. To this class, superphosphate is the principal and most important of all manures. We will direct our attention to the subject. The value of bones, as a manure, depends on the gelatine and the phosphoric acid they contain, substance in common with all animal matters, except fat yields by decay in the soil ammonia, while the phosphoric acid, combined with lime and magnesia, is slowly dissolved under the same treatment -the moisture of the soil, —and conveyed into the organism of the plant, there to perform the important functions allotted to it. The bone dust supplied for agricultural purposes consists of the hones of animals crushed into half-inch, quarter-inch, and some as fine as powder. By boiling the bones in open coppers, the fat is extracted—-removed by skimming—and sold to the soap makers. The boxes supplied for agricultural purposes are deprived of their fat, and in this condition are superior to natural bones, because the fat they retain greatly retards the action in the soil. It is found that a piece of fresh bone, buried under the surface of the earth, undergoes little change, and for a length of time refuses to decay. This is the reason—by the fatty matter it contains diffused through the substance, it excludes the moisture necessary to the decay of the gelatine or animal matter it may contain in the bones. For this reason, fresh bones are next to useless in the soil; the bones kept dry are deprived of this fat, and are kept in a moist state in heaps for two or three months. Under these circumstances the bones heat or ferment from the decomposition of earthy matter. They contain much ammonia. The greater proportion is still retained by the fat. By this process the bones become softer, and better suited for use as a manure. The use of Superphosphate may be regarded an improved method of applying bone manure to the land; but if we break up the bones into small powder before adding it to the soil a greater surface is required, and so exposed to the action of water, and more of it dissolved in a given time, and, consequently, a larger quantity of it is conveyed to the plants in a given time growing in the soil. By the use of superphosphate we produce this to to a great degree. An idea of the minute state of division in which the bone material is expirated from superphosphate when added to the soil may be found by the simple experiment. A small quantity of bone-dust is put into a glass, and pour some muriatic acid on it, and in less than two days the bone will become soft owing to its extraction of its earthy matter, it may contain, which is dissolved in the clean acid liquor. If we now add some ammonia, or common soda, a white flocullent substance may be obtained. When bones are moistened with water, and mixed with oil of vitriol, much heat and steam with gases are given off while the bones dissolve, leaving a cream fluid. On drying, the mixture dries up and becomes solid, and forms a loose friable grey powder. This powder is superphosphate of lime. The essential difference between bone-dust is being soluble in water, and all these materials combined with lime, and in this manufacture the resulting manure is rendered more valuable by the ammoniac matter it contains. The gelatine of the hones, a part of this, is transformed into ammonia, which, meeting with the sulphuric acid, becomes sulphate of ammonia. The richest manure will be of little use without being dry, reduced to fine powder, and its constituents thoroughly incorporated. Superphosphate is generally applied to root crops, in conjunction with salt, sawdust, ashes, and soil, drilled in with the seed. About 3 cwt. per acre will be a fair dose. Bone-dust is particularly adapted for root crops, turnips, swedes, carrots, onions, peas, and beans. The common way in use : Get some bone-dust, and put into a heap covered with ashes, soil, sawdust, &c., and throw into it soap-suds, urine, and the water from the manure pond, and that will cause it to ferment, and will make the greatest fertiliser possible known. You can put the liquor on the same as a water-cart, and then cast the substance or refuse on the land.

A Provincial Government Gazette was published on Wednesday, containing a return of all lands sold at the Waste Lands Office, Auckland, from Ist of October to 31st December, 1863 ; schedule of assessment, Mahurangi, “ Highways Districtnotification of sale of special settlement land to members of the Church of England Emigration Society, at Brown’s Mill, Mahurangi, on the 22nd instant; a notice from the Government of Mauritius, in reference to the establishment of a new light-house ; definition of districts under the “ Highways Act, 1862 ;” appointment of trustees under the same for district of Panmure ; division of districts for affording increased facilities for vaccination, under the Act for 1863 ; fixing the 15 th of April as date of operation of the act to abate the dog nuisance ; and a report on plenro-pneumonia, which we give in a separate form.

The Militia and Volunteer Hospital, on Tuesday. received an addition of seven sick men from Drary, mostly cases of dysentery, and others are daily expected. The muster at the “ black bottle” parade, as the mustering of the sick men of our citizen forces is termed, is being augmented daily, and their privations are very great.