WAST 12 BONES FOR ORCHARD TREES.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1642, 4 October 1887, Page 3

WAST 12 BONES FOR ORCHARD TREES.

The bones of fish, fowls, and the large and small pieces of bone which are purchased with beefsteak and mutton, constitute the very best food for fruit trees and, grape vines, if the fragments are only placed where the roots can lay hold of them. Instead of allowing pieces, of hone to he cast into the hack yard, as food for stray dogs and cats, domestics should he directed to deposit anything of the sort in a small tub provided with a cover. As soon as a few pounds have

accumulated, take the tub to some fruit tree, dig a hole three or four feet long, a foot or two wide, and not less than a foot deep, into which the bones arc dumped, spread over the bottom of the excavation, and covered with the soil The more the fragments can be

spread around, the better, but they should be buried so deep that a plough * or spade will not touob them. The roots of growing vines or fruit trees will soon find the valuable mine of rich fertility, and will feed on the elements that will greatly promote the growth of healthy wood and the development of fair and luscious fruit. Many horticulturalists and farmers purchase bone dust, costing not less than a penny a pound, simply to enrich the soil around and beneath their trees and vines. Fragments of bone are just as valuable as ground bone, although their elements of fertility will not he found available in so short a time as if the large pieces were so reduced to atoms. Nevertheless, if large bones be buried three or four feet from a grape vine, the countless number of mouths »■- the end of roots will soon dissolve, take up, and appropriate every particle. When cast out at the kitchen door, bones are a nuisancej whereas, if properly buried,

they become a source of valuable fertility. Let every person who owns a grape vine or fruit tree save all the bones that pass through the kitchen, and bury them where they will be turned to some profit.