The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1884-04-04


ashes, SO that there shall be NO wasrs
room to be filed by the I've; because If
there be too much waste room the lye
will not reach the upper portion of the
bones without diluting it with water 80
much that it will not be strong enough
to accomplish the object desired. After
the bones are thus packed they should
be covered with ashes as deep as are the
bones: then water should be applied
very gradually in manner as when
ashes are set to leach. 1t requires
quite as much Judgment to make lye
to dissolve bone as it does to make it
for soap.
It will require several months, and
sometimes q whole year, to soften the
bones in this way; the time depending
on the strength of the I've and the hard
ness of the bones. If taken out too soon
the hard bones can be thrown out to be
put in the next lot.
Some recommend sulphurie acid. but
to soften large bones with this material
is not practicable, and those who rec
ommend it are mere theorists. Bone
that is ground may be reduced with
acid and made soluble, but even this is
work that requires practice and skill
to do it in n satisfactory manner. The
common farmer would fail much oftener
than he would succeed, and would
sometimes get sticky material that
would be but little if any better than
the raw bone.
The simplest and cheapest way to re-
duce bones to make them available for
plant food is to burn them; but to do
this is a great loss of valuable plant
food, as it consumes all of the nitro
gen; yet the ashes is very rich in phos-
phate, being about eighty per cent. 1t
also contains sixteen per cent. of car
Donate of lime, two or three per cent. Of
phosphate of magnesia, soda and po-
fash. All of these substances are in
dispensable to vegetable growth. The
process of burning bones is so simple
that some contend that when only small
quantities are to be reduced it is the
best way, even though the nitrogen be-
lost. 1t would certainly be better to
burn them than to sell them for half
q cent, or even a cent pound. 1t is
very poor policy for the farmer to sell
the bones from the farm; in fact, when
he can buy at less than cent a pound
he had better buy what he can, though
he have to resort to burning them to
make them available for plant food;
but, as this is a wasteful process, the
ashes should be resOrted to when they
can be readily obtained. In some por-
tions of the State small establishments
have been erected to steam and grind
bones. BY extracting the grease and
gelatin the bones are easily ground;
this leaves in the bone about One-bah
of the nitrogen; the other half may be
, saved by composing the liquid with
dry muck. Some of the owners of
these mills are willing to steam and
grind bones for fair consideration
When such mills can be found within 3
reasonable distance. this is the best
way to get small. or even large. lot
of bones, worked up into plant food.
The time will probably come when
these small mills will be found all over
the country, the same as mills to grind
corn; then the farmer will be able to get
waste bones changed into very valua-
Gle manure. Ground steamed bone is
not very quick acting fertilizer unless
it be treated with acid, but it is very
anu OuC tiIhC WIZ Pto"
duce good crops the first year. When
applied to land that is seeded down to
grass, if ton to the acre Of this fer
tilizer be applied, it will carry out good
crops for some years, if assisted with
light top dressing of manure OCCASION
ally.
Large bones applied to the soil are Of
but little advantage to the crops for
many years after applied. therefore they
should be carefully gathered up and re-
duced by some process, to make them
more Immediately available for plant
food. This is being done more general
ly than ever before, but even now there
are large quantities of bones that are al
lowed to be wasted, many farmers not
yet realizing their real value -Massa-
chusetts PLoughman.