A most important manure, and one to the history of which very peculiar interest attaches, is Bones. Employed first in 1774, their use has steadily increased ever since, and their popularity as a phosphatic manure is among farmers in this country quite unrivalled. Like guano, although to a less extent, the early practice of using bones has done much to arouse interest in the problems of manuring, and to bring home to farmers the principles underlying that practice. It was from bones that Liebig first made superphosphate of lime, and the distinguished veteran experimenter, Sir John Bennet Lawes, has told us that the benefit accruing from the use of bones on the turnip crop first drew his attention to the interesting problem connected with the application of artificial manures. Bones were first used in Yorkshire. Shortly afterwards they were applied to exhausted pastures in Cheshire. Soon their use became so popular that the home supply was found inadequate; and they were imported from Germany and Northern Europe, Hull being the port of disembarkation. So largely were they used by English farmers, that Baron Liebig considered it necessary to raise a warning protest against their lavish application. "England is robbing all other countries of the condition of their fertility. Already, in her eagerness for bones, she has turned up the battle-fields of Leipzig, of Waterloo, and of the Crimea; already from the catacombs of Sicily she has carried away the skeletons of many successive generations. Annually she removes from the shores of other countries to her own the manurial equivalent of three millions and a half of men, whom she takes from us the means of supporting, and squanders down her sewers to the sea. Like a vampire, she hangs upon the neck of Europe—nay, of the entire world!—and sucks the heart-blood from nations without a thought of justice towards them, without a shadow of lasting advantage to herself."[216]
Different Forms in which Bones are used.
It may be pointed out that bones have done much to alter our system of farming, by helping to develop turnip culture. Used at first in comparatively large pieces, experience gradually showed that a finer state of division facilitated their action. Yet it was long before the prejudice in favour of rough bones disappeared; and it was not till 1829 that Mr Anderson of Dundee introduced machinery for preparing 1/2-inch and 1/4-inch bones and bone-dust. In the early days of their use, bones were fermented before being used, in order to render their action more speedy when applied to the soil; and this practice still obtains to the present day in some parts of the country among farmers. This fermentation was often effected simply by mixing the bones with water, and allowing the heap to lie for a week or two. In other cases the bones were mixed with urine or other refuse matter. The most important step, however, in the history of the treatment of bones for manure was the discovery in 1840, by Liebig, of the action of sulphuric acid on them—a discovery which led to the institution of the manufacture of superphosphate of lime by Sir John Lawes. The nature of this action will be explained in the following chapter, so that we need only say here that the efficacy of the manure by treatment with sulphuric acid is more than doubled. Bones have thus been used, and still are used, in a variety of conditions, such as in the raw or green state, bruised, boiled, steamed, fermented, burned, dissolved, and broken or ground into various states of fineness, to which the names of 1/2-inch, 1/4-inch bones, bone-meal, bone-dust, and floated bones are given. We shall now proceed to discuss the composition of bones, and investigate more exactly the nature of their action.
Composition of Bones.
The composition of bone-tissue varies considerably, and depends on the age and kind of animal to which it belongs, as well as to the part of the animal frame from which it is taken. Bones are made up of an organic and an inorganic part. By steeping a piece of bone in a dilute acid solution, the inorganic portion of the bone is dissolved out, and the organic portion, which forms the framework of the bone, is alone left. On the other hand, by submitting a bone to the action of great heat, the organic portion of the bone is driven off, and all that remains is a quantity of ash. The proportion of the organic to the inorganic matter varies considerably in different bones. The bones of young animals contain more organic matter than those of old animals. In compact bones, also, the organic matter is greater than in spongy bones. The thigh-bone, of all the bones, contains most inorganic matter. In short, bones which have to bear the greatest strain are richest in inorganic matter. Of the bones of animals, fish-bones exhibit the greatest variety of composition, some being almost entirely made up of organic matter, while others are similar in their composition to the bones of quadrupeds.
The organic portion of bones is almost entirely made up of a substance to which the name ossein has been given, and which, when boiled for a long time, is converted into gelatine. This ossein, which forms on an average from 25 to 30 per cent of the weight of bones, is extremely rich in nitrogen, containing over 18 per cent.
Inorganic Portion of Bones.
The inorganic portion, which forms about 70 per cent, is made up chiefly of phosphate of lime. The dry leg-bones of oxen and sheep, according to Heintz, have the following percentage composition:—
| Per cent. | |
| Phosphate of lime | 58 to 63 |
| Carbonate of lime | 6 to 7 |
| Phosphate of magnesia | 1 to 2 |
| Fluoride of calcium | 2 |
| Organic matter | 25 to 30 |