IMPROVEMENT OF MUCK SWAMPS. 157 



swamps result from the gradual filling of lakes with vegetable matter is 

 proved by the numerous instances on our railroads when overloaded embank- 

 ments have suddenly disappeared from sight. One case in my own ex- 

 perience is sufficient. When engineer on a railroad in the eastern part of 

 the State, we had occasion to build a heavy embankment about thirty rods 

 in length, across an innocent looking swamp heavily timbered with tama- 

 rack. The embankment was built nearly to grade, about twenty feet in 

 height. At night when leaving work it appeared to be all right. The next 

 morning when reaching the swamp, the embankment had nearly disappeared, 

 huge trees by the side were thrown up and toppled over as though exposed 

 to a charge of dynamite. The true cause was this: our swamp had been 

 simply a shell. This we had injudiciously broken through. We applied 

 the only remedy in that case, which was to build up our embankment again 

 and again until it would settle no more. I have known of sink holes so 

 deep that railroads despaired — even with their enormous capital — of ever 

 filling them. 



The formation of the marshes bordering springs is not essentially differ- 

 ent from that surrounding lakes. In this case, however, we usually have 

 the vegetation growing in clusters or bogs and such holes never lose, from 

 natural causes, their miry condition. 



Many a wild animal has rued his temerity in crossing such places. From 

 & bog-swamp near my father's house was obtained the entire skeleton and a 

 huge pair of antlers once belonging to an elk. In the marshes of northern 

 Siberia, in Asia, it is a common occurence to find buried, woolly mastodons, 

 an animal now extinct, but so perfectly preserved that its fiesh is edible. 



PROPERTIES OF MUCK. 



What we term "muck" is known in Ireland, England and Europe gener- 

 ally as "peat" and when dried is used very largely as a fuel. This decayed 

 vegetable matter is often called "hamus." 



As a fuel, peat is extensively used and is not without value. The value 

 of fuel depends upon the amount of carbon and hydrogen entering into its 

 composition. 



The following table gives the principal constituents of certain fuels. 



Peat Wood Coal, 



air dried. air dried. Soft. 



Per cent. Per cent. Per cent. 



Water 8 to 20 20 2 to 10 



Ash 5 to 15 1 2 to 14 



Carbon . 52 to 66 39 56 to 75 



Hydrogen.. 4 to 8 5 5 to 8 



Nitrogen IJ to 3 85 



Oxygen 2» to 40 .. 6 to 12 



The value of manures depend upon the amount of combined nitrogen they 

 contain, which for peat is generally found to be less than 2 per cent. The 

 result of this investigation serves to show that as a fuel, peat possesses much 

 Talue, but as a manure, very little. 



A great difference of opinion is held respecting the value of muck, either 

 as a soil to support improved crops or as a manure for other crops. There 

 may be a reason for this difference of opinion, for, as I have had occasion to 

 point out, there is great difference in the "muck" itself; some of it maybe 

 well rotted, other portions may be nothing but a mass of vegetable fibre and 

 hence one may be in shape for use as a manure, the other of no use whatever. 



