The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1871-12-16
FARM IND HOUSEHOLD.
Bones. Great Waste.

Bones are very important agricultural
product, for they remove from the soil a
very large amount of its most valuable
mineral constituent. Consisting largely of
phosphate of lime, the abstract from the
farm that which we find it most difficult
and most expensive to replace. The ex-
tent of this abstraction, too, is something
considerable. The number of animals
brought into the city of New York during
! 1870 was as follows: 800, 044 oxen, SS9, 616
swine, I, 463, $50 sheep, and 116, 4o0 calves.
Estimating the average weights of these as
700 TBS. for beeves. $50 lbs. for swine, IS
TBS for sheep, and 100 fb. for calves, dress
ed weights, and the bones at 90 per cent of
the weights of the carcass, there would be
over SO, 900 tons of bones. The consump-
ton Of New York is probably one TWEEN
tieth of that of the whole United States
There would be therefore one million tons
of bones produced on our farms and pas
lures in year by means of animals raised
for food alone. Fifty-tive per cent of this
consists of phosphate of lime, or $50, 900
tons. Now it is a question worthy of con-
sideration how much of this is returned to
the soil in the shape of bone-dust or super
phosphates, or whether it is possible ever
to recover the great portion of it. Vast
quantities of bones are used in the arts, for
the purpose Of manufacturing handles of
brushes and knives, rings umbrella and
parasol handles, buttons, and an infinite
variety of other "notions, " the material of
which is lost to agriculture. Then there
are exported to foreign countries over H.
600 tons per annum, in the shape of bone
black or raw BONE which is also lost to us.
| Then the large quantity uncollected and
left to waste all over the country would
probably bring the total lost to agriculture
to half of the quantity produced. There
fore it is pretty certain that not more than
one half of the amount of phosphates alb
stracted from the soil is retured thereto in
the shape of bone-dust, super-phosphates,
and other artificial manures We do not
take into account the loss by means of the
milk of ten million cows, which 1869 were
fed on our farms, which would equal Is
Tbs. of phospbates per COW per annum; nor
that contained in the vast quantity of grain
raised and shipped away and sold. That
the average yield of grain is each year
diminishing, that pastures are no longer
| able to support the former stock, or that
our agricultural population at the East are
fast removing to " fresh fields and pastures
new = in the far West, is no longer supris-
ing, when we consider the steady drain to
which our lands have been subjected for a
period now measured by centuries in some
districts, but by scores of years in almost
all the eastern parts of the country.
But when we understand the cause of
thing, the remedy becomes apparent. And
remedy must be applied forthwith. We
are abundantly warned in the lessening
fertility of our fields that we must restore
something of what we have for so many
years been occupied in abstracting, and
that if possible no particle of bone be suf-
fered to escape the service for which it is
so much required. That a large quantity
is irrecoverably wasted each year is fact
beyond dispute, all of which wonld be glad
ly utilized if it could be secured. Hun
dreds of tons are annually wasted by farm
ers themselves, who, if they do not care to
use them on their own farms, should feel
it to be their duty to put others who would
gladly use them in the way of procuring
them. In most towns and villages of the
United States, there are dealers who would
gladly purchase them, at price equal to
or approximating cent a pound; and if
those who make a business of crushing
bones, for the purposs of manufacturing
them into manure, could procure them,
there would be made large addition to
the available amount of fertilizers in the
market, all of which would ultimately find
its way back to the soil whence 1t was
originally abstraoted. Great Britain i'm
ports large quantity of bones for agricul-
tural use, and exports none, gathering from
almost every country in the world; and
the consequence is that crops there have
reached and maintained at an average guam
tlty equal to the maximum ever reached in
the most abundantby periods of American
agriculture. Here is lesson for us that
we should not hesitate to learn, and we
, shall guide ourselves accordingly.
-inasrscHR -igriGu!Erfst.