The Russellville Democrat., 1889-03-28
GROUND ANIMAL BONE.
Its Values as . Fertilizer Analyxed at an
 Eastern Experiment. Station.

Its Values as . Fertilizer AnaIyxed at an
 Eastern Experiment. Station.
 In the selection of ground bones for fertilizing purposes, farmers are in- clined to choose those articles which are coarse in grain, that they may be better able to detect impurities by sight, and for this reason prefer size as large as shirt buttons rather than the finer grades of bone meal, wherein it is supposed deliberations can be more successfully disguised. In crush ing and grinding bones for the pur- poses of agriculture their peculiar structure prevents the particles from assuming either globular or prismatic shapes, as they invariably break up into splinters, no matter how finely they are ground, showing to the naked eye, or under microscope, mass Of jagged edges totally dissimilar from those of any mineral substances with which they may be mixed. For this reason all forms of adulteration, whether in the shape of gypsum, quartz, sand or South Carolina rock, can readily be detected by sight alone, independent of chemical analysis.
 At the Connecticut Agricultural Sta tion the mechanical condition of bone manures determines their comparative values to great extent, preference being given to those most finely ground This Is wise and fair treat ment for both manufacturers and con sumers. and should be adopted by oth- CT States, for the farmer who wants a quick and profitable return for his money invested In animal-bone fertil- izers should get the finest bone he can obtain, instead of the coarsest. Even taking it for granted that bone-meal is absolutely pure and in the finest condi- tion, the phosphoric acid represented in it is not soluble, nor even available for immediate crop food. The minutest fragment of bone in it's natural state is too bulky and indigestible for del- icate plants, and must be slowly de- composed by the action of acid and other corrosive principles in the soil before it can enter into vegetable life. To hasten this process of decay, and fit the atoms of bone-dust for speedy work, recourse is had by the manu- facturer to oil of vitriol, which un- locks their stores of fertility, and makes soluble the inert phosphorio acid Bones thus dissolved as con- pared with bone-meal are as we'll cooked provisions to raw, indigesti- ble mass. One is assimilable and nu- tritious, the other crude, and for the time being unsatisfactory. The dis solved bone acts quickly on grain crops, and yet enough of it is left in reserve which these crops do not take up for the benefit of grasses for years to tome. This is a point frequently misapprehended by farm CTS. There can be no loss in properly dissolved bones by reason of any surplus wasted which the growing crop, to which it has been applied, has failed to utilize. Its condition, while soluble, and ever ready as plant food, is such as to be impossible to incur waste by volatilization, it simply waits until the growing crop reaches out for necessary food. The intrinsic value of pure dissolved bones is frequently made apparent as an ingredient in low grade fertilizers. A few hundred pounds are introduced in a formula mainly composed of cheap materials, from the use ot which surprisingly good but very transitory results follow. It is the little leaven of dissolved bones which has quickened the mass and given it the only vitality really possessed. Philadelphia Record.