This table shows that these ashes are rich in the substances most needed by our crops, particularly in potash, soda, sulphuric acid, and phosphoric acid. The quantity of ash that they leave when dry, is larger than that in straw or hay. When freshly taken from the sea, they contain a very large proportion of water.

Seaweed is plowed in green, or applied as compost. In either case it decays very rapidly, unless extremely dry, and produces most of its effects upon the first crop. Many of the seaweeds contain much nitrogen; and this, while it adds greatly to their value as manures, increases the rapidity with which they decompose.

In England rape dust is largely used as a manure, and with much advantage. The rape seed is pressed to obtain its oil, just as linseed is, and the hard cake formed by pressure sold for manure. Four or five hundred weight per acre are applied as a top dressing, or from 1500 to 2000 lbs., when it is plowed in. This is therefore a powerful manure, and is so portable that it would be valuable in this country could it be procured at a reasonable rate. Where green vegetable manures of any description can be easily obtained away from the farm, the farmer will do well to remember that there is an especial advantage in their application; they add to his land not only organic, but inorganic substances which have never been there before, and are consequently a clear gain to the soil in every respect.

OF ANIMAL MANURES.

These

We will now take up the second class, the animal manures. comprise the blood, flesh, hair, horns, bones and excrements of animals. Manures of this class are more powerful by far than the vegetable manures, because they contain so much more nitrogen. I now simply state this fact; the reason why nitrogen is so efficacious, will be given hereafter. Blood and flesh are among the most valuable of all; wherever they can be obtained, they should be secured at once, and either buried or made into compost. All of the offa! from slaughter-houses is of much value, though in this country it is often entirely wasted.

It is not uncommon, in many districts, to see horses or cattle that die from disease, drawn out to some secluded spot, and there left to decay on the surface. These are known to be some of the most powerful manures, that the farmer could obtain; equal to guano, poudrette, or any of the other more costly fertilizers. Every animal that dies should be made into a compost, or buried in pieces at once. The best plan is to separate the flesh, which decomposes readily and produces an immediate effect, and make use of the bones according to some of the methods to be hereafter described.

The hair of animals is an exceedingly rich manure; for this reason woolen rags, and the waste from woolen mills, are both considered valuable in England; they are sold there at from $20 to $40 per ton, and are eagerly sought after at these prices, as not only very fertilizing, but also very lasting in the soil. All of the hair obtained from the furs of animals is there scrupulously saved, and sold at a high price. Twenty or thirty bushels per acre produce an excellent effect.

All these parts of the animal leave an ash corresponding with that of plants in the substances which it contains, with the single exception of silica; this does not seem to enter into the composition of the animal. We are then now able to point out distinctions between the inorganic matter in the soil, in the plant, and in the animal. They all contain the same substances, if we omit silica and alumina.

TABLE V.

The soil contains silica and alumina.

The plant contains silica, but no alumina.

The animal contains neither silica nor alumina.

OF BONES.

There is one important part of the animal yet unnoticed, that is the bones. Their composition is, when dry, earthy matter about 66 lbs. in 100; organic matter that burns away, about 34 lbs.

a. This earthy matter consists for the most part of phosphate of lime, that is, lime in combination with phosphoric acid; these, as already shown, are two most valuable substances for application to any soil.

b. The organic part is called gelatin, or glue; this is boiled out by the glue-makers: it is extremely rich in nitrogen, and is therefore an excellent manure. We thus see, at once, how important a source of nourishment for our land is to be found in bones. They unite, from the above statement, some of the most efficacious and desirable organic and inorganic manures. Both of these parts are fitted to minister powerfully to the growth of the plant.

When the bones are applied whole, the effect is not very marked at - first, because they decay slowly in the soil: it is also necessary to put on a large quantity per acre. The best way is to have them crushed to powder, or to fine fragments, in mills. Ten bushels of dust will produce a more immediate and abundant result than 80 or 100 bushels of whole bones, although, of course, the effect will be sooner over. advantageous way of using them, is to put on 8 to 10 bushels of dust per acre, and half the usual quantity of farm-yard manure.

An

Boiled bones, that have been used by the glue makers, are still quite valuable they have lost the greater part of their gelatine, but the phosphates remain; and the bones are so softened by the long boiling that they have undergone, as to decompose quickly, and afford an immediate supply of food to plants.

Another most important form of applying bones, is in a state of solution by sulphuric acid, (oil of vitriol.) This is a cheap substance, costing by the carboy not more than 2 to 3 cents per lb. To every 100 lbs. of bones, about 50 to 60 of acid are taken; if bone dust is used, from 25 to 45 lbs. of acid is sufficient. The acid must be mixed with two or three times its bulk of water, because if applied strong it would only burn and blacken the bones without dissolving them.

a. The bones are placed in a tub, and a portion of the previously diluted acid poured upon them. After standing a day, another portion of acid may be poured on; and finally the last on the third day, if they are not already dissolved. The mass should be often stirred.

b. Another good way is to place the bones in a heap upon any convenient floor, and pour a portion of the acid upon them. After standing half a day, the heap should be thoroughly mixed, and a little more acid added; this to be continued so long as necessary. It is a method which I have known to prove very successful.

In either case the bones will ultimately soften and dissolve to a kind of paste; this may be mixed with twenty or thirty times its bulk of water, and applied to the land by means of an ordinary water cart. Used in this way, it produces a wonderful effect upon nearly all crops.

A more convenient method in most cases is to thoroughly mix the pasty mass of dissolved bones with a large quantity of ashes, peat earth, sawdust, or charcoal dust. It can then be sown by hand, or dropped from a drill machine. Two or three bushels of these dissolved bones, with half the usual quantity of yard manure, are sufficient for an acre. This is, therefore, an exceedingly powerful fertilizer. One reason for its remarkable effect is, that the bones are by dissolving brought into a state of such minute division that they are easily and at once available

for the plant. A peculiar phosphate of lime is formed, called by che mists a superphosphate, which is very soluble; and in addition to this we have the sulphuric acid, of itself an excellent application to most soils.

Bones are useful in nearly every district, and are peculiarly adapted to all, or at least to most of those situations, where the land, without heavy manuring, no longer bears good wheat, or indian corn, or other grains. In a great majority of cases, where land is run down by grain cropping, the use of bones in some of the forms above mentioned, is of all things the most likely to meet the deficiency. It will be remembered that the ash of grain is peculiarly rich in phosphates; consequently, as grain is generally sold off, the phosphates are most readily exhausted; in bones, therefore, we find just the manure for restoring them, and with little expense. This has been already tried in some parts of the country, and with most encouraging success. I would particularly recommend farmers to experiment with bones dissolved in sulphuric acid. The dissolving of them is a simple business, and can be easily. shown on a small scale, by the teacher to his class. He can do it, for instance, in a teacup or tumbler, or on a plate or a flat stone. The cheapness of this manure is a great recommendation. Two bushels of bones would not certainly cost more than $1.00; then say 50 lbs. of acid to dissolve them, would cost by the carboy, $1.50, making only $2.50, for a quantity quite sufficient for an acre, with half the usual dressing farm-yard manure. It would be worth almost as much as this, to cart the common manure from the yard, to say nothing of its value. There are few farms on which bones enough might not be collected in the cousse of a year, to help out in this way the manuring of several acres.

Bones may not only be applied successfully to the ordinary cultivated crops, but also to meadows and pastures. In some of the older dairy districts, a few bushels of bone dust per acre will at once restore wornout pastures. The reason is, that the milk and cheese, which are in one form or another, sold and carried away, contain considerable quantities of phosphates in their ash. These are restored to the land by bones. It is calculated by Prof. Johnston, that a cow giving 20 quarts of milk per day, takes from the soil about 2 lbs. of phosphate of lime or bone earth in each week. There would thus be required three or four lbs. of bones, to make good this loss. If it is not made good in some way, the rich grasses after a time cease to flourish; being succeeded by those which require less phosphate of lime, and therefore do not furnish, when eaten by the cow, so rich or so abundant milk.

All of these uses of bones which have been described, are understood and appreciated in England; so much so, that the bones are all collected with most scrupulous care, and are even imported from every other country where they can be advantageously obtained. It is to be hoped that the great waste of them in this country may soon cease, and that they will be eagerly sought after by American farmers.

This much as to the fertilizing value of the various parts of animals: we enter next, on another most important department of animal ma

nures.

MANURES (CONTINUED.)

OF THE MANURES FROM DOMESTIC ANIMALS, AND THEIR PRESERVATION.

The manure of various domestic animals is, in this country, most commonly employed as a fertilizer, all other manures being used in comparatively small quantities; and yet even these are seldom preserved and applied as carefully as they might, or ought to be.

The principal varieties are those of the ox, the cow, the hog, the horse and the sheep. Of these, that of the horse is most valuable in its fresh state; it contains much nitrogen, but is very liable to lose by fermentation. That of the hog comes next. That of the cow is placed at the bottom of the list. This is because the enriching substances of her food go principally to the formation of milk, the manure being thereby rendered poorer.

The manure of all these animals is far richer than the food given them, because it contains much more nitrogen. This is for the reason that a large part of the carbon and oxygen of the food are consumed in the lungs and blood generally, for the purpose of keeping up the heat of the body. They are given off from the lungs, and also by perspiration and evaporation through the pores of the skin, in the forms of carbonic acid and water.

From animals fed upon rich food, the manure is much more powerful than when it is poor. In England, for instance, where they fatten cattle largely on oil-cake, it is calculated that the increased value of the manure repays all of the outlay. This is the reason why human ordure is better than manure from any of the animals mentioned above, the food of man being rich and various.

All these kinds of manure should be carefully collected and preserved, both as to their liquid and solid parts. The liquid part or urine is particularly rich in the phosphates and in nitrogen. This part is by very many farmers permitted in a great degree to run away or