as otherwise a coating of sulphate of lime will form over the par-
ticles of bones and prevent the further action of the acid. They
should be suffered to stand for ten days or a fortnight, be very fre-
quently stirred, and then their superfluous moisture dried with saw-
dust, wheat chaff or any convenient substance except lime, for the
reasons before given.

The handling of the sulphuric acid requires caution, as it will
excoriate the skin or burn the clothes of those who handle it if it
comes in contact with them. The best mode is to have a bent
leaden tube or siphon, with a stop-cock at one end; this should
be filled with water, the short end placed in the sulphuric acid, the
long one with the stop-cock over the bones; the stop cock is now
to be turned, and the acid can in this manner be applied without
any risk or danger to those using it.

Quantity and Cost per Acre.—The proper quantity of dissolved
bones, as near as I can know from all the information which I have
upon the subject, is about five bushels to be sown broadcast at the
time of sowing or planting the crops. The cost, exclusive of labor,
which is but slight, will be of

Bones, 5 bushels, 250 lbs., at 50 cents per bushel,.$2 50
Sulphuric acid, 83 lbs., 2½ cents per lb....................2 07½

$4 57½

Or at most five dollars per acre. This will in every instance, if
judiciously applied, produce an increase, equal to the above sum in
every crop for four or five years, and then leave the land much better
than before its application. To those who are in the habit of ma-
nuring fields with stable manure, this quantity added will enable
them to dispense with an amount of stable manure double in price
to the above, make its action more permanent and produce better
crops. It should in every instance be thoroughly mixed with the
manure before being applied. I offer this suggestion particularly
to those who have market farms in the neighborhood of our cities,
and to whom the cost alone of hauling stable manure is very
great.

Farmers should take every occasion to manufacture their own
manures, as they have had no certainty of the purity of the articles
bought, and therefore have heretofore incurred great loss. I
have shown, when speaking of guano, how this has been the case
in relation to this article; and if so in this, how much more
likely is it to be the case in a manufactured article, where no
check exists to prevent its adulteration or impurity, and which
few have the ability to detect ? The value of dissolved bones
depends on their phosphate of lime being converted into bi-
phosphate of lime; and to show how important this is, it is

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