The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1884-11-19

periments are on record showing the
difference in availability of the different
grades of ground bone, so far as we are
aware. 1t is, therefore, at present a
question of practical experience, and
upon our own experience, although we
prefer fine bone to coarse at the same
price, we are by no means prepared to
make difference of twenty-five per
cent between the fine and medium
grades. AS a matter of fact, the differ
ent grades are found mixed together in
most samples, as is shown in the me-
chanical analyses given in the report.
One of these is stated as follows:
Fine, IS per cent
Fine Medium 81 per cent
For grass seeding we should actually
prefer such sample as this to one all
fine. We should do so, we think, even
for biennial crop, like clover. In fact,
the only place where we feel sure that
all fine bone would be worth any more
than such a sample as the above would
be to drill in with turnip seed to force
the growth rapidly out of the way of
the fly In fitting ground for an or
chard we should prefer all coarse bone.
| Twelve years ago we dressed an acre
of ground with about two tons of bone
broken up with hammer as fine as it
could be conveniently done without
smashing too many fingers. We have
plowed and hoed over that ground every
year since. All crops have shown to an
inch where that bone ends, though the
land all around has been kept in good
heart with various fertilizers. But it
would be necessary to search and sift
the soil carefully to find any of those
pieces of bone applied so thickly a
dozen years ago. That bone cost us,
all ready to go upon the land, S17.50 per
ton. If we had dressed that piece with
fine to medium ground bone, such as is
estimated in a sample, the analysis of
which is given on page So (No. 1,016)
at S52. IS per ton, on the stations system,
our profit must have been much less,
for in the quantity used the very coarse
bone gave all the phosphoric acid the
crops could take, as shown by their
luXuriance, year after year. And we
will say right here that with a fertilizer
such as bone not subject to loss by
teaching, or the formation of unsoluble
compounds in the soil, it is always
cheapest to take it coarse at a low
price, and put on an equal moneys
worth. 1t is, in the larger quantity, in
no perceptible degree g slower" while
it is evidently more durable. Under
the stations estimates ton of fine
bone, costing $50, would be a poorer
purchase than ton and half of coarse
bone costing the same money, for
almost any crop. No 6 availability :"
whateverw would be gainedto compensate
for the loss in quantity of the fertilizing
material. If we lived handy to a city
where we could drive in and buy our
fertilizers and draw them home, we
would like to make some extended tests
to demonstrate more fully the facts
above given. But the railroads of
New England have the fashion of put
ting 60 all the traffic will bear" (and
more too, for they cut it off entirely
upon anything farmer wants in less
quantity than a carload. OF course the
managers "know their business or
think they do, but it is within the limits
of possibility that men may come after
them who will know it better, and will
see that many small customers are
better than a few large ones. If it
were not for the stupid distractions
thrown in their way by the present sys-
TEN, our New England farmers would
buy many-fold more than they now do
of fertilizing and feeding material, and
with it SO greatly increase their mer-
charitable surplus as to make the pres
ent business of the railroads mere
trifle in comparison with what it would
then be. But old fogyism dies hard.
Maine Pathological Report.