208 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



months is necessary, previous to its application. Mr. Heman 

 Cousins of Trenton, writes me that his potatoes, planted this year 

 on muscle-bed fresh from the deposits, did not do as well as where 

 they had no dressing whatever; while on such as had been exposed 

 since last autumn the crop was very good ; and the same held true 

 with regard to Indian corn. He also states that his wheat and 

 barley, sown on muscle-bed, were very good crops — the straw be- 

 ing five and a half feet high on an average. 



There is considerable discrepancy in the reported effects of mus- 

 cle-bed when plowed in, and when applied in the hill to hoed crops ; 

 but the testimony regarding its value, when applied as a top dress- 

 ing to grass upon loams and clays, is uniform, and warrants an 

 earnest recommendation of extended employment. 



Analyses were lately made at my request, by the chemist of the 

 State Scientific Survey of several good samples of muscle-bed, 

 which showed their average composition to be as follows : 



Organic matter, - - - - - - 2.15 



Soluble salts, ------- 1.09 



Carbonate of Lime, ------ 32.90 



Clay, Sand and Silicates, ----- 63.28 



Loss, __---__ .58 



100.00 

 With regard to the rationale of the action of muscle-bed as a 

 manure, I am very happy to be able to present the following com- 

 munication from Dr. S. L. Dana, of Lowell, well known as the 

 most eminent American agricultural chemist, which he kindly 

 furnished in reply to a note of inquiry on this point. It will be 

 read with great interest. I will merely premise that it was writ- 

 ten before any analysis of muscle-bed was known to have been 

 made by any one ; and also that the remarks of Messrs. Bailey & 

 Wasson alluded to in the paper can be found in the report for 

 1859: 



Dear Sir : — " Muscle bed" has not come under my eyes since a 

 boy, nor under my hands as a chemist at any time. I presume 

 you mean by " muscle bed" the deposit of mud, slime, ooze, &c., 

 brought into salt water by the influx of fresh streams, or abraded 

 by the ocean from the coast, and transported thereby to localities 

 which fiivor its final deposition, where it has become the residence 

 of generations of shell fish. Of course this murZ will be composed 

 like the finest part of soil, a mass of silicates reinforced with the 

 organic matter and salts of the ocean. It is a very complex body, 



