Our Monthly Supplement SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 9, 1878. AGRICULTURAL CHEMISTRY.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XIII, Issue 35, 9 February 1878, Page 1

Our Monthly Supplement SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 9, 1878. AGRICULTURAL CHEMISTRY.

A lecture on this subject was recently delivered by Professor Bickerton at Ashburton, in the Canterbury district. The lecture, he said, would deal with the special subject of bones applied as artificial manure. These lectures were held under the auspices of the Canterbury School of Agriculture, and were to be given periodically in different parts of Canterbury. The lecturer first described the various constituents of bones, and gave several practical illustrations of the effects produced by supplying the different acids and gases and phosphorus to the water which was contained in the soil. He stated that the employment of bones as a manure was one of the greatest modern improvements in agriculture. • They were chiefly used by being pulverised, and applied to the ground after undergoing various chemical preparations. The phosphate of bones was a substance which made a most desirable addition to the soil, and a substance which could not be dispensed with, either in the animal or vegetable economy, was the constituent phosphoric acid, usually found in combination with lime and magnesia. The continued cropping year after year, and grazing with all kinds of stock, took from the soil this most essential element. The bones of all animals which were allowed to feed off the grass or the crop, or stubble even, diminished to a very great extent by their absorbtion the phosphoric acid contained in the soil, therefore all present would see that it was most essential on the part of all well meaning agriculturists to have the most important constituents of the soil returned to it by artificial means. This .was a subject which ought to be studied more than it was, it being a matter of £ s. d. to them all. The subject of the lecture was no doubt dry to a good many, but when it was shown that it aimed at something that would eventually affect

the pockets of all farmers, greater interest than was now manifest would probably bo shown, The lecturer here very minutely described tha way in. which the acids affected water. Before coming to New Zealand he had been, told that little or no phosphorus was contained in the soil, but on his. arrival he found this was erroneous. A considerable quantity did exist in the soil, and in the water too. Professor,Bickerton then described at some length the manner in which the bone ash was obtained. The bones were burnt in an open furnace, the oxygen of the air consuming the organic matter, and leaving the ash constituent in a white friable mass of the same size, as the original, bone, but which could be reduced easily to powder, forming the ash. Boues of good quality, consisted of SO per cent of phosphate of lime, 20 per cent of carbonate of lime, phosphate of magnesia, soda, and chloride of sodium, or common salt. The different parts comprising the above were then exhibited to those present, Several experiments with phosphorus sulphuric acid gas, ammonia, and other chemicals were given and described in. a most lucid aud interesting manner. Dr. Stewart, at the close • of the. lecture, asked that a vote of thanks should •be accorded to tho lecturer for his able and instructive lecture, and it was carried by acclamation.