180%]€ 97)
HINTS ON THE VSE OF BONE MANÜURE.
To the Editor of the Agricultural Magazine. SIR,
HE use of bones as a manure has been long known,
and practised in particular distriets near large towns, where they are capable of being procured in sufficient quan- tities and upon reazonable terms; but it is in Hertfordshire, that they have been employed for the greatest length of time, and over the greatest extent of land: Their application has, however, lately been much on tbe decline, on account of the price being 80 much raised by the dealers in London, as from eight or nine Shillings the ehaldron, to from Sixteen to twenty. And bezides, they are in general Somewhat inferior in quality, especially the boiled sorts, from the mucilaginous oily matter being more completely extracted. They are, therefore, without doubt, the most beneficial when made use of in theis unboiled State. Before their application, they are prepared by being broken down and.rednced into mal] pieces by different contrivances for the purpose, and are then either laid on in their Simple State, or in composition with different Sorts of earthy materials. They are found to produce the greatest effects, when they are the most broken down, but do not last 50 long. They Should, of course, probably not be brought into too great a state of reduction. They are likewise used after being burnt; and jn the above county, they are Supposed by Some to be most proper for pasture land in this State, but for that of the arable clayey kind when only boiled. This last condition being found, in practice, the most lasting in their effects of any of the modes in which they are employed."Phe burnt Sorts cost, about Hatfield, eight-pence tbe bushel, at which price they are in consider- able use by the farmers; but the boiled ones at the town of Hertford, are now uSvally about a guinea the chaldron. The former sort are found there to do the best on poor cold elayey Jands, and on Such as has been lately laid down to the State of sward. Sowe farmers lay them on in the proportion of SIX Chaldrons to the acre, but others to a much greater ex- tent, and in theze proportions they last from four or five, to SIX Or Seven years. In other parts of this distriet, tbey are found the most beneficial on loams of ihe more heavy bind- ing kind. They Seem to be, in some measure, uncertain in their effects, as they have been found to produce the most Striking improvement on one field, while in the adjoining oue,


