BONE MANURE

Colonist, Volume III, Issue 295, 17 August 1860, Page 4

BONE MANURE

The process of bringing whole bones into a pulverised condition, otherwise than,by grinding, has been practised in England for ten years or more, having been brought before the public there by Mr. Pusey, for many years the editor of the Journal of the Royal Agricultural Society of England; but it appears not to have become very widely known in this country. The process depends upon the fact that bones consist to the amount of one-third their weight of cartilage, or animal matter,-which under the influence of warmth and moisture, readily decomposes (ferments or decays,) and loses its texture so that the bones fall to dust. > From the closeness and solidity of the bdhy structure, decay is excited and maintained with some difficulty. A single bone, or a heap of bones never decay alone, but dries and hardens on exposure. If, .however, bones in quantity be brought into close contact with some easily, fermentable moist substance, but little time elapses before a rapid decay sets in. So, too, if fresh crushed bones are mixed with sand soil or any powdery matter that fills up the spaces between the fragments of bone, and makes the heap compact, and then are moistened with pure water, the same result takes place in warm weather though tlie more' slowly. ■ The practical process may be as follows : The bones, if wbble.should be broken up as far as convenient by a sledge hammer, and made into alternate layers with sand, loam, saw-dust,: leached ;ashes, coal ashes, or swamp muck, using just enough of any one of tluse materials . to fill compactly the cavities among the bones, but hardly more. Begin with a thick layer of earth or muck. As the pile is raised pour on stale urine or dung, heap liquor enough to moisten the whole mass thoroughly, and finally cover a foot thick with soil or muckIn warm weather the decomposition goes on at ouce, and in from two to six or more weeks the bones will have nearly or entirely disappeared. .;..■. . ■.-'■--.-.■ ■-■ *- "■; y--' If the fermentation should spend itself without reducing the bones sufficiently, the heap may be overhauled and built up again,, moistening with liquid manure and covering as before. By thrusting a pole or bar into a heap, the progress of decomposition may be traced from the heat and odour evolved, ; Should the heap become heated to the surface so that ammonia escapes, as may be judged by the smell, it may be covered still more thickly, with earth or muck. . , [ i The larger the heap the finer the bones, and: jtHe more stale urine or dung liquor they: have,, jbeen made to absorb, the more rapid and com- ". plete will be the disintegration. ; In these heaps, horse-dung or other rapidly fermenting manure may replace the ashes, &c, but earth or muck should be used to cover the heap. This bone compost contains the phosphates of lime in a finely divided-state, and the nitrogen of the cartilage which has mostly passed into : ammonia or nitrates, is retaiued perfectly by the; absorbent,earth or muck. ; ■ When carefully prepared; this manure is Adapted to .be from a dril^macliiue "with seeds, and according to English farmers, fully replaces, in nearly every case, the superphosphate made by help of oil of *UroL—Sydney Emjpire.*