The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1881-05-07
How to Use Bones.

! Plant food is concentrated in bones !;
and most gardeners who make bust
! ness of raising fruits and vegetables ap-
preciate their value. The great draw
| back to their use is the difficulty of re-
ducing them to sufficient fineness, so that
plants may Immediately appropriate
them. If bone-mills were more COM
mon, and the adulteration of the ground
bone were less frequent, this excellent
fertilizer would be more commonly
used. Even without bone-mills there is
no need of wasting the bones, if one has
a garden. We have applied them with
great profit in several ways. In tree
planting they are almost indispensable.
They can be had of village boys gener-
ally for about twenty-five to fifty cents a
barrel. They pick them up about the
streets, gardens, and slaughter-houses,
the remnants of butchers meats sold to
families. This kind of bone is fine
enough to be put into borders for grape
vines and fruit-trees, and to bury under
old trees, without any preparation. A
bushel of these bones to a newly planted
tree is none too much, and one may
safely plant five bushels under bearing
apple or pear-tree, or grapevine. So
large results will not follow Immediately
from these coarse pieces as from the
ground article, or from superphosphate.
But there will be in the soil supply of
food for many years to come, and the
roots will appropriate it as they have
need. The fine rootlets will seek the
bones as eagerly as they seek water in
tile drain. We have frequently taken
up grape-vines planted in this way, and
solid, penetrated with fine roots. We
doubt if any investment in fertilizers
pays better than in these bones from
butchers meat, which are quite plenti-
full in all our villages. Another method
of using them is with the preparation of
the n hammer or stone sledge. This re-
quires some expenditure of muscle or of
money. The Common bones are tough,
and require heavy blows to crush them.
Parts will be crushed quite fine andsome
will remain in inch pieces. They may
be applied to the soil for all ordinary
crops, especially for turnips, in this
partly broken state, with profit. 1t is
still better, however, to reduce them to
" IHcr SbdUe, ny AoiLucHIaIiOu III q coHl-
post heap, or by treating with wood
ashes. If they are put into cask and
mixed with alternate layers of wood
ashes, and Kept moist, they will soon go
to pieces, and the fine mixture will have
large accession of potash and be made
more valuable and better adapted to
crops that want good deal of potash.
II wood ashes are not convenient, the
Bones may be fermented in q compost
heap with good garden SOIL. Put them
into any fermenting mass of vegetable
or animal matter, and the bones will add
to the heat and become very fine. After
the fermentation is over, the whole mass
should be shoveled over, and intimately
mixed, and it may be spread broadcast
or put in the hill as concentrated
manure. This way is good enough,
though it requires more time than the
reduction of bone by sulphuric acid,
which costs money, and requires more
careful handling. We have used bones
in all these methods, with great profit,
for thirty years, and expect to use them
while we eat the fruits of the garden.
Never throw away any of the BONES
american AgricuItuTtst. d 500 v1a