Almond, Wis.
How are bones treated before being used for fertilizing purposes? For what crops is bone-dust most used, and on what soils?
Subscriber.
Answer.—First, they are generally boiled for the oil and glue or gelatine in them, which do not materially affect their value as fertilizers. They are then ground or crushed, without being previously burned. In this state this fertilizer is known as bone dust, and is sown broadcast at the rate of 50 to 100 pounds to the acre, as a rich manure for pasture, turnips, and small grain lands. In Cheshire, England, where the fine red sandstone loam had become comparatively sterile before the first of this century, through deficiency of phosphoric acid in the soil, caused by constant pasturage in dairy farming, they resorted to the use of calcined bone and bone dust, with the effect of doubling the product the first year. There they often lay on a half ton to a ton to an acre, which serves as a good dressing for sixteen to twenty years. The best way to ascertain whether a soil needs bone dust is to experiment for a year or two with a small plat of ground. The result will determine better than a chemical analysis whether a bone dust dressing will pay.
THE AGE OF SANTA FE.
Atchison, Kan.
Is Santa Fe the oldest of American cities, as the Santa Fe papers claim?
A Subscriber.
Answer.—Cabez de Vaca, a Spanish adventurer, was in New Mexico with his shipwrecked party as early as 1535. General Coronado, with a large military expedition, conquered the Zuni and Moqui towns, or pueblos, in 1540-41, and kept a journal, still in existence, which identifies the regions he overran as undoubtedly a part of this Territory. Don Antonio Espejo left Zacatecas in 1581 according to some authorities, but late in 1582 according to others, and visited what is now Santa Fe County, New Mexico, in July of 1583. He gave a fuller report than had ever been given before of the pueblos of this region, in which he estimated the population of the province of Taos as 40,000. The principal pueblo in this province was Tanos, afterward known as Tegra, and still later as Santa Fe. As an Indian town Santa Fe may be older than any other town in the United States, but as a European settlement St. Augustine, Fla., still carries the palm of antiquity, having been founded in 1565.