No. 62.] 75 



manure equal in value to three cords of green dung." Mr. Rob- 

 bins of Watertown, though owning a large stock, makes no use of 

 their manures. These he sells; but keeps his farm in a high state of 

 fertility, by mixing swamp muck or peat with spent ashes from his 

 soap and candle factory. The proportions he uses are, one part of 

 spent ashes to three of peat, dug up in the fall and mixed with the 

 ashes in the spring. After shoveling over two or three times, it is 

 spread and plowed in. The effect is felt at once; and so far the ma- 

 nure has proved durable. 



According to Mr. Colman, in his Fourth Report, two thirds of the ma- 

 nure used on the extensive garden and farm of Mr. Gushing, near Bos- 

 Use of Peat ton, is made from meadow muck or peat. The compost, for 

 Muck?"™^ top dressing meadow and grass lands, is made by taking the 

 muck from the pit in August or September, where it lies to the next 

 year. The compost heap is then made on some convenient place, by 

 spreading a layer of muck eight inches thick; on the muck four in- 

 ches of ashes; then another layer of muck,, and so on for five layers, 

 making a pile five feet high, in the form of a ridge. This lies through 

 the winter, is opened and mixed in the spring, and the next fall is 

 spread on the land. The compost for plowed lands is made of two- 

 thirds muck and one-third manure. Fresh manure, or that which 

 has not fermented, is always used, and care is taken not to put in so 

 much muck as to prevent the compost's heating. The fermentation 

 of the manure decomposes the muck rapidly, and when this is done, 

 the compost is fit for the land. Horse manure or unslacked lime, ac- 

 celerates the fermentation — colder manure retards it. It is the opi- 

 nion of Mr. Gushing and his gardener, that muck for mixing with 

 cowdung, or for putting in hog styes, should be dug from the swamp 

 six months before using, as the action of the atmosphere facilitates 

 the change necessary. Muck, without this preparatory fermentation, 

 they consider of little importance as a manure. 



Pond mud, although not as rich in vegetable matter or humus as 

 swamp muck or peat, is still one of the most valuable of fertilizers, 

 p^^^j The quantity of earthy matters it contains, is rather an advan- 

 Mud. tagg xhan otherwise, when applied to light or sandy soils, 

 and will rarely be found injarious on any. As a manure, the action 

 of pond mud is more immediate than that of unfermented muck, 

 owing to the much greater proportion of salts and silicates it contains. 

 It is astonishing what quantities of this manure are lying worse than 



