PROCEEDINGS OF THE ANNUAL MEETING. 117 



" Very well," he replied, " that's what I wanted to bring about. Go 

 ahead." But the suit never was brought, and $16,000 were saved to the 

 farmers. 



Mr. Wesley Johnson: I use a great deal of muck in my stables, as an 

 absorbent, with straw, and haul it right out to the fields. Do I lose 

 anything? 



Mr. Kedzie: What is your soil? 



Mr. Johnson: Clay loam. 



Mr. Kedzie: It will hold all but the nitrates. They will wash away — 

 the only waste in nature. 



Mr. Tracy: Suppose one takes the cheesy muck, dries it, then moistens 

 and allows to freeze; what will be the result? 



Mr. Kedzie: It will stay as hard as Pharaoh's heart. 



Mr. J. A. Lyon: If you had a tamarack marsh of fibrous muck, with 

 nothing on it but tamarack and huckleberries, what would you do? 



Mr. Kedzie: Leave the tamarack and huckleberries. Methuselah 

 might make tillable land of it, but the ordinary man can not. Lime will 

 change the sour muck; wood ashes would be better. I can not be certain 

 as to the time within which one of these muck beds, those not already 

 tillable, could be brought under cultivation. 



Mr. Kellogg: How much ashes can be used to the acre — what is the 

 limit? 



Mr. Kedzie: I would not hesitate to put thirty bushels per acre upon 



any soil; and forty, if light and sandy. 



Mr. Hamilton: What is the best way to apply lime? 



Mr. Kedzie: Apply on the surface and cultivate it in. If quick lime 

 is used, slake it with water. The lower grades of lime, air-slaked, are 

 quite as good. 



Mr. M. B. Williams: Is there not great difference in ashes, whether 

 of hard or soft wood, or of pine? 



Mr. Kedzie: Pine ashes are valuable; they have potash and much 

 soluble silica. Ashes of soft woods are worth about twenty-five per cent. 

 of those from hard wood. 



Mr. A. Bobinson: Are corncob ashes as good as ashes from hard wood, 

 or better? 



Mr. Kedzie: They are better. There is forty per cent, of potash in 

 them. Ten to fifteen bushels per acre of them may be used. 



Mr. Van Auken: I know a man who plowed under rye and turnips. 

 Which of these makes the better manure? 



Mr. Kedzie: Best results would come from rye. There is as much 

 solid matter in milk as in turnips, which are eighty-five par cent, water. 



