118 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



ily hauled at any season of llie year, but would be more nearly 

 ready for use. Muck in this condition, I have known liaulcd 

 immediately to the field, and used to decided advantage in 

 the hill for potatoes, not much behind good manure ; not often 

 for corn, though I have heard of cases of the like, but I have 

 known others when it was a decided damage. The great prac- 

 tical utility of muck is in combination with the manure of ani- 

 mals, and it is in this form that it is beginning to be used to 

 some extent, by nearly all our farmers, and with greater or 

 less profit, according to its quality, and the skill of the user. 

 We have no peat in this region. 



Guano, super-phosphate of lime, and poudrctte, have not been 

 used' to any considerable extent, but plaster has been used quite 

 extensively. The result is sometimes very marked, sometimes 

 not at all visible. The conditions of success or failure are not 

 well understood by any one. Some general conclusions are 

 arrived at, such as these : that plaster is more useful on clay 

 ground than on sandy; more beneficial in a dry season than in 

 wet; more useful on sward, as when sowed to improve the grass 

 crop, or as applied to potatoes on sward, than on old plough- 

 ings. Though it has been long used, it is not now used with 

 confidence, or definite expectation of any given result, or any 

 sure rate of profit. Agricultural science ought to render this 

 matter more definite and plain to whoever may care to know — 

 what it is worth for this soil, and what for that — what for this 

 crop and what for that — and why, are inquiries more easily 

 made than answered. Is it the lime, or is it the sulphuric acid 

 of which ])laster is composed, that stimulates the crop, or is it 

 both combined ? Clay soil usually abounds in potash, and also 

 lime, so that we should infer that the slight part of lime in 

 plaster must be nearly thrown away, especially as plaster is 

 found equally beneficial on ground when an application of lime 

 has no efiect."' If this is found to be so, cannot the fifth part 

 of plaster, namely, the sulphur, or sulphuric acid be made avail- 

 able in some other combination equally advantageous, and not 

 as costly, and of less expense of transportation? Why cannot 

 the State do something to solve some of these questions ?" 



* See Address of Dr. Lee, of the Agricultural Department of the Patent Office. 



