Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1882-03-03

DR.. Cutting is reported as giving, at meet
ings of the board of agriculture, several form
ulas for reducing bone to an available phos-
phate, and the processes are recommended as
being so simple that they can be followed
even by child. We quote some of these
formulas
For pure bone superphosphate take one bar
rel of hne-ground bone meal and four gallons
of sulphuric acid Put one-half of the bone
meal into a scalding- tub and add three or four
gallons of water-iust enough to moisten it.
Then pour on slowly, stirring at the same
time, two gallons of the acid then let rest
for twelve hours and put on the remainder of
the acid, after which add the other half barrel
of meal This will make over 800 pounds of
superphosphate. and that 300 pounds will be
worth as much as the ton of commercial fer
tIl2er usually sold for $40. Another good
fertilizer, but not a superphosphate, can be
made by mixing two bushels of ashes and one
of bone meal and placing same in barrels
wet it down with hot water as much as you
can and not start the lye. Let stand six weeks
and then apply to the land. Whole bones
may be worked up in this way at great pro-
fit. They need not be broken, but put into a
barrel a bushel of ashes and then pack in a
layer of bones then ashes as before, and
bones again thus fill barrels in your cellar as
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As you can and not waste the I've. Let stand
over one season, and the next the bones will
be found fine as the ashes. Remember TO
keep the ashes moist all the time. On muck
land this is more valuable than the pure super
phosphate. Would not edvise farmers to
make large quantities of these fertilizers IN
til they have ascertained the needs of their
soil.
DR.. Cutting has several times more of the
kind of knowledge fitting one to give advice
about the preparation Of fertilizers than the
average farmer yet we think the idea that
bone is so easily reduced to an available phos-
phate that a child can perform the process is
little strong Sulphuric acid is a rather
dangerous liquid for any one TO handle with
out some knowledge of its chemical proper
ties, and to manufacture superphosphate sue
cessfully by dissolying bones in acid has been
believed to require considerable skill and ex-
perience. We have tried to reduce whole
bones in ashes, after the manner recommend
ed above, without much success and so have
many others. We kept unbroken bones two
or three years in wet ashes in an old iron ket-
tie, and at the end of that time it took some
pretty severe labor to pulverize them sufi-
SASALAy " uhAd tucll VI muCu value W. u Ter
rilizer. By putting them in a natural basin
in a solid rock, which was found convenient
and pounding them vigorously with a sledge-
hammer for a longer time than we preferred
in one day, We we're able to sift out with fine
sieve some bone tOlerably well pulverized (;
but much remained that was too coarse to be
of any use as a fertilizer until it was further
reduced We shall have but little faith in
reducing whole bones by keeping them in wet
ashes until we know more about ter less.
Tho coarse fragments that remained after
sitting out what could be pulyerized, with
other bones that had not been treated in ashes,
were finally reduced by boiling in strong lye.
This last process, if continued long enough,
will bring the toughest bones to such a state
that they may be reduced to powder A small
proportion of their fertilizing properties
would be lost by this treatment, but probably
not enough to pay for the extra labor and ex-
Pense of pulverizing the raw bones. Nothing
which they contain of value, except the small
per cent. of ammonia, would be lost