Rensselaer Union, Volume 7, Number 49, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 26 August 1875 — Preparing Bones for Use as Fertilizers. [ARTICLE]

Preparing Bones for Use as Fertilizers.

Sulphuric, acid, oil of vitriol, is the usual and probably the beat substance to dissolve bones for use on land. Tut it will not dissolve whole bones, noriexcept jtery slowly those which have been merely pounded and broken up. Thorough grinding into meal, the finer the better, is the most reliable means of getting the bone in ?ood condition for dissolving by the acid. In many cases burning the bones and then grinding the.cliarred remains would be advisable. Some nitrogen is lost by this process, but the more important phosphate of lime is as valuable after burning as before. Some may think that when bones are burned and ground fine further treatment is unnecessary, but we have jjot found it so. The (sulphuric acid divides the small I particles of bone far finer than we , can grind them, and, what is more, it leaves the phosphate of lime in good i condition to be readily taken up by the . roots of plants. Part of the lime in the i bone is left in the form of a t sulphate (com- ; mon gypsum) while the balance is a superi phosphate, the most valuable form of minj eral fertilizers. It is frequently recommended to compost I bones with ashes, or with manure. If~ ground finely enough these will dissolve [ the bone to a considerable extent; but the i action of bones treated thus will be much i slower and less certain than where the i true superphosphate is used. There may be . cases where it would be profitable to comi post ground or pounded bones with stable manure, as the sulphuric acid is bad stuff to handle except with the greatest care, but we would not advise the use of ashes, which can be best applied separately. — Dural New Yorker.