Year: 1873

Concentrated Manures for Wheat.


Farmers in the older settled States
are becoming convinced of the neces-
sity of sowing with wheat in the fall,
some fine quick-acting fertilizer; in or
der to give it such a start that it will
become deeply rooted to endure the
freezings and thawing of winter and
spring. Our winters are becoming
harder; or, at least more unfavorable
for fall-soWn grain, either because there
is less snow; or the winds, in conse-
quence of the destruction of forests,
blow it off the fields, leaving them ex-
posed to the action of the weather. In
order to preserve the wheat under such
circumstances it should be we'll rooted
and have good growth of top.


1t is impossible for ordinary farmers
to make enough barn-yard manure to
cover their cultivated fields, or even
their wheat crop should they make
that leading crop, and if they could,
it will not, in dry seasons, yield up its
fertilizing properties soon enough to
be available for the autumn growth of
wheat. It then becomes question of
the highest interest, is there any eco
nomical substitute for barn-yard ma
nure procurable, that will answer the
desired end? We believe that it is gen.
orally admitted, both by chemists and
practical men, that those manures
which are the richest in available nit
rogen act the most promptly, and the
most powerfully. There are various
kinds of special manures offered to the
farmer which are more or less valua-
BILE if honestly made.


Peruvian Guapo.-A pure article of
this fertilizer is undoubtedly valuable
to osow with wheat to give tia rapid start,
and as it is rich both in ammonia Ga
compound of nitrogen and hydrogen)
and phosphate of lime, it furnishes two
important ingredients of wheat. But
the amount of genuine Peruvian gu
ano that finds its way into Western
New York is small and expensive. We
are not certain, if the pure article could
be obtained for four to five cents pound
that it would not pay to drill in with
wheat, some 300 pounds to the acre.


Bone-DWst, when genuine, is gener-
ally made thus: The animals dying
in city are collected from slaughter
houses, and the bones from which the
meat has been cut for Bologna sausa-
ges are gathered, and boiled long time
until the flesh will readily cleave from
the bones. The mass is then sorted
over, and the harder bones picked out
for manufacturing into buttons, knife
handles, &c. The next softer class are
burned in tight vessels to make bone
black, or animal charcoal to be used in
sugar refining. The small, broken
pieces, and softer bones, together with
the flesh, hair, &c. Substances rich in
nitrogen) are dried and ground, form
ing the bone-dust of commerce. The
nitrogenus portions of this bone-dust
are rapidly digested by the soil, and
assimilated by the growing plant, while
the phosphate of lime is much more
slowly appropriated. Where this bone
dust is ground sufficiently fine to pass
the drill and is honestly made, we be-
lieve it is an excellent fertilizer to SOW
with wheat.


SWperphosphote Of Lime is sold in
two forms: the raw bone, and the burnt
bone. The raw bone is bone-dust treat
ed to sulphuric acid, which unites with
a portion of the lime Of the bones, hast
ening their decomposition, and leaving
an excess Of phosphoric acid available
of the nutrition ofplants. Burnt bone
superphosphate is made of the refuse
bone-black, or bone charcoal of sugar
refneries, digested in sulphuric acid.
This Is destitute Of nitrogen (that gas
having been driven off in burning the
bones), and is in consequence much
less valuable than the raw bone. There
are many manufactures of these fer
tilizers through the country Of more
or less reliability. That extensive
frauds are perpetrated in adulterating
the pure superphospate there is no
doubt. The fact has led farmers to
distrust all commercial fertilizers, and
prevented that general use of them,
which would greatly increase the prof
its of farming were thery what they
ought to be.-RurGI Home.