AGRICULTURAL ITEMS.

Oamaru Mail, Volume IV, Issue 1248, 17 April 1880, Page 3

AGRICULTURAL ITEMS.

We have before this remarked (says an exchange) that almost every district in the Colony shonld have a bone mill, and that such mills should be situated as near as possible to the slaughter house, so that a fair stock might always be on hand to keep the mills going. . The co3t_ of snch establishments would be but trivial. The simplest form of crushing apparatus will answer, and a very simple mill will not take much time or labor to turn out a few tons of bone-dust, a manure which, as top-dressing for pastures, is most valuable. Jlaclvor estimates that there is at least lib of phosphate of lime in every 25 or 30 gallons of milk, and that an ordinary cow mntps a demand on the soil equal to 801 or 901b3 of bone in each year. This state- j m ent explains why pastures so ofcen become weak and require rest—rest which, by-the-bye, might be dispensed with if a few hundredweights of bone-dust per acre ■were harrowed in, say in autumn of each or every second year. Bones may be rendered sufficiently soluble by being simply crushed, mixed with ashes, peat, or earth put into a heap, wetted occasionally, and allowed to remain so for two or three months before use. Active fermentation will set in, and for all ordinary purposes will be found almost equal to superphosphate, with the advantage of having been prepared at a nominal cost. Superphosphate of lime is simply bones treated with water and sulphuric acid, and is the outcome of one of Liebig's suggestions. The method of preparing bonc3 of any kind for treatment with sulphuric acid, is to have them broken up small, either by hammers or ground in a mill for the purpose; the finer the bones are broken the less acid will be required. To every lOOibs of bones should bu added an equal weight of water poured over them and well mixed. To avoid waste an old case may be U3ed for the mixture. The usual quantity of acid used for dissolving half-inch bone 3 is oOlbs to every lOOtbs of bones. An American plan for dissolving bones is to 511 an old barrel with alternate layers of wood ashes and broken bones. On this mixture hot water is occasionally poured, and an excellent manure is the result.