SECRETARY'S PORTFOLIO. 365 



lighten clay land. Pond mud is called muck because it is black, but as a rule 

 it will not pay for handling. Peat is supposed to be muck, but makes a very 

 poor manure applied directly to a crop. All muck is sour and injurious to the 

 land until it is changed by a winter's freezing or the rays of the sun. If one 

 has a muck bed it will pay to work at it in winter when there is nothing else to 

 do, and in summer convert it into ashes for a top dressing. It will also pay 

 when the teams are otherwise idle to haul muck to the barnyard, if it can be 

 got at handy, and the price of the labor is not very high; 25 cents per load 

 delivered on the ground, is all the expense it will bear as a maximum value, 

 and it should not be more than half that as muck averages. 



USES OF SOOT IN THE GARDEN. 



Soot is valuable for the ammonia which it contains, and also for its power of 

 reabsorbing ammonia. The creosote it contains is valuable as an insect 

 destroyer and as a fertilizer of all garden crops. If the soil is dry a little 

 common household salt may be mixed with soot. Lime and soot should never 

 be mixed together; lime destroys the ammonia. Soot that has been steeped in 

 water for two or three days is as good a fertilizer as horse hoof parings for 

 house plants, and increases the vividness of the bloom of flowers in the open 

 air. Soot and salt in connection with compost — one quart of salt to six quarts 

 of soot — is an excellent fertilizer for asparagus, onions, cabbages, etc. Two 

 bushels of compost make a heavy dressing for each square rod of ground, to 

 be worked in the surface of the soil. — Gardening Illustrated. 



USING BONES. 



There is no better manure for berries, trees and vines than bones, if they can 

 be utilized. The papers are teeming with methods to reduce them, but the 

 simplest and best method for fruit growers is to follow Dr. Nichols' method, 

 published so many years ago: "Take 100 pounds of bones broken up into 

 small fragments ; pack them into a tight cask or box with 100 pounds of good 

 wood ashes. Mix with the ashes before packing, 25 pounds of slacked lime 

 12 pounds of sal soda, powdered fine. It will require about 20 gallons of water 

 to saturate the mass, and more may be added from time to time to maintain 

 the moisture. In two or three weeks the bones will be so soft that they may 

 be turned out upon the floor and mixed with two bushels of good soil, and after 

 the mass is dry it will be ready for use." 



SCIENCE AND SENSE ABOUT MANURE. 



Dissolve common salt in water, sprinkle the same over your manure heap,, 

 and the volatile parts of the ammonia will become fixed salts, from their hav- 

 ing united with the muriatic acid of the common salt, and the soda thus liber- 

 ated from the salt will quickly absorb carbonic acid, forming carbonate of soda; 

 thus yon will retain with your manure the ammonia that would otherwise fly 



