The Camden weekly journal. [volume] (Camden, South-Carolina) 1853-1861, 1854-04-04
agranltural.
Cheap Experiment in DecompOsinG
Bones.

The value of bones as a manure, ground or
pulverized, and more especially dissolved and
formed iuto snpcrphosphate of lime, is now just
beginning to be appreciated by practical agri-
culturists in this country, as its beneficial eff.
fects, upon root crops particularly, have come
to be known by experience.
Formerly bones were only regarded among
US as nuisance, to be thrown in the street. or
to be dumped into some hole with the skeletons
of old tin pans and kettles, broken pots, &c
and the carcasses of defunct cows and horses
were carted away into some lonely swamp, or
distant place in the woods; and not till they
had obtained IN export, for several years, from
this country, by our English brethren, did it
occur TO the American cultivator that "old
bones" could be of any possible use.
But when our good farmers began to feel
that the saving of manure was a thing of such
vast importance, and that the barn-celar-as
nv old grandfather used to say to his gardener
was their aiewel box" then they began to
look around them for material and leaves,
sods, ashes, pond-mud, peat earth, oyster shells,
bones, &c. came in use to encourage and aid
a more enlightened, economical farming.
Yet still, great obstacle in the way of the
more generous use Of bones, is the expense and
difficulty attending their pulverization or de-
composition. However prudent fsrmer may
be in collecting and saving bones, skeletons
and carcaseS, if there is no "bone mill' any
where within dozen or twenty miles of him.
he is no better of fo" manure than before; as 1t
is well known, that half Il century may pass
over them in an unpulverized stale without ve-
rv much of their nutritious qualities being ex.
tracted, even during such lapse of years
Again, the expense and laDoross care Of de.
comprising them with sui pIuric acid or vitro,
especially to the ma joritv of farmers, who
are not accustomed to such delicate jobs as
handling supuric acid, and making nice expert
ments with chemicals discourage the mass
Of them from attempting to 60 into the manu-
fcture Of " home made super phosphate of
lime.
Hence it becomes an important inquiry, es-
pecialy as this manure is found to be SO valu-
able, whether some cheap and easy way of de-
composing bones cannot be discovered, for the
benefit of the common farm.
Without aluding to other experiments, in
regard TO dissolving bones in strong I've, &c,
that have been partially successful propose
here, in as few words as possible, to describe
an experiment, made on small SC ale, with
bones and horse manure, that may lead many
readers to still further experiments anil at length
end in some important practical result
An intelligent and thoughtful neghbor Of
mine, Mr.. Edward Willis, a soap manufactu
rer-whose father has taken great deal of in
terest for many years in agriculture, especially
in the application of ashes to light worn out
lands, and from whom our great neighbor. the
late Daniel Webster, used t" procure hundreds
of bushels of ashes a year for similar lands
recently made all experiment of this kind
Taking quantity of bones, none of them per-
haps larger, and most Of them smaller than a
mans two fists, he made good layer of fresh
horse manure, on which he placed layer oi
bones, then another layer Of manure, then a
layer of bones, and so on, to the top, covering
the heap over we'll with the manure. 1t lay
somewhat longer than he intended, and was
allowed to bec"me to some de9ree>fre Eingrd,
but the homes were utterly decomposed dsin
tegrated and dissolved. S" that the whole
heap had become homogeneous mass, and