The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1867-03-02

Our friend the Rev. Mai. A. Deerino Of
Richmond (a'worthy clergyman of the Free.
will Baptist communion, and patriotic Major
of one of our Maine regiments in the late re-
belion,) has communication in the Albany
Country Gentleman, in which he gives the re-
suits Of several experiments made by him in
'he use of bone meal as fertilizer. In the
summer Of 1865, on a light, clayey loam, broke
up 'he fail before, with a light coat OF manure
pie'u on and narrowed In, we suppose be-
o painting he tried raw bone meal on IA
r'on r OF beans. Upon the first four rows
Nc pa' q snovellul OF common barn manure in
each each hiii'-making it. as we sbould tbinls very
rich ior Deans, which are apt to grow 100 much
TO haulm and too little to seed ~ tbo so;, 4,
highly enriched; and on four othor ro,,, ho-
side the hrst plat, he deposited handful of
raw bone manure in each hill Thew were
cultivated alike through the season. and bar-
vested at the same time In autumn. Hebaa
good crop, but there was no perceptible diff
ference i'm the yield of the rows, created with
manure or with bone meal. This wouldseem
to show, that the fertiliziDg power OF bone is
equal to that of manure-one handful of the
first against shovelul of the latter. But,
query? will not a handful of bone meal cost as
much as the shovelfnl of manure? If so, the
advantage Is not very apparent, unless in the
transportation and application.
Last year he tried another experiment. He
put his bone meal with ashes in the cellar dur
ing winter; in spring the bone Seemed all dis
solved This he mixed with two quarts of soil
TO one OF the bone and ashes, and applied the
mixture to his potato field. On a few drills
he dropped the potatoes first, at the usual dis
tance of hills, and dropped upon the seed a
handful OF the mixture. On the balance of
the piece, he strewed the mixture and dropped
the seed on that, but, of course, bringing less of
the mixture in contact with the potato slips.
In the first rows the potatoes were nearly all
killed; in the rest of the piece they did finely.
Query? Was it the strong alkal of the ashes,
or the comminuted bone which killed in the
first experiment; and to which of the substan-
ces in the mixture was our friend indebted for
the fneness of bis crop? Is ...fl"
Furthermore, he says he once strewed some
bone meal on rows Of turnips when he planted
the seed they came up and grew well for a
time, then every one died.
Lastly, on three acres of barley he sowed
twelve bushels equal parts OF bone meal, salt,
lime and plaster He had good crop of bar
ley, and never saw so good catch OF grass,
which remained green till winter, and was 4
matter of eerddnt admiration to all the neigh
bors. Query? Which did the most good to
his barley? and was not the excellent catch of
grass owing more to the moisture of the sea-
son, and the thinness of the barley, which did
not stiie the young grass, than to any partic-
ular value in the bone, salt, lime or plaster?
Experiments in agriculture are important
and should be encouraged. They are the tests
of truth; but in order that the tests may be
made reliable, all the circumstances and con-
ditiOns bearing upon them should be carefully
considered.
tiI "..a N.H TRAXI