324 STATE BOAKl) OF AGRICULTURE. 



ill the d.ei)ai"tmeiit of agriculture, or any otlier field, will be likely to waste val- 

 uable time and energies unless he can keep himself informed of experiments 

 and speculations Avhicli are accessible only in these languages. The college 

 hopes to graduate at least a few who shall further agriculture as a science. 

 Should they leave the institution with no knowledge of any language but the 

 English the task of learning French and German would seem to them insu- 

 perable. We so teach French that a short course enables them to read it. 

 To show students the way into the widest and most thorough investigation is 

 certainly a duty of the college. It is probably reasons such as these that 

 have led to the adoption of French into all scientific schools. 



In regard to experiments President Abbot said he believed the board had 

 lately taken sucli action a> would prove satisfactory to the friends of the college. 



ADDRESS ON SWAMP MUCK. 



BY R. C. KEDZIE. 



Thirteen years ago when I first entered upon my labors at the State Agricul- 

 tural College, a very intelligent farmer of Eaton county, then member of the 

 Tjegislature, said to me, '"If the Agricultural College will tell the farmers of 

 this State Avhat to do with their swamp muck, it will pay this State more than 

 the College will ever cost. I believe there is untold Avealth in swamp muck." 

 These words made a deep impression on my mind, and from that day I have 

 endeavored to do my part in answering the question, what shall the farmer do 

 with his muck? In the Keports of the State Board from 1803 to 18G8 you will 

 find various contributions which I made on this subject. 



One of the first requirements for successful farming in any country is to 

 know what means for enriching our fields, increasing their yield, and at the 

 same time preserving their fertility, are to be found in aliundance and ready for 

 immediate use, and liow to use those means. 



In former days it was the habit of ignorant scoffers to speak of ''the vast 

 and uninhabitable swamps of Michigan, — the home of malaria, and the breeding 

 place of frogs and slimy reptiles." The drainage laws of our State have done 

 much to remove this opprobrium by a wisely concerted system of drainage by 

 which each tract of land thus benefited was made to bear its just proportion of 

 the cost of this benefit. No more just or wise law w'as ever enacted, or one 

 more beneficial to this State, and by it hundreds of thousands of acres have 

 been brought under successful tillage. Nor is this all, for the benefit of the 

 public health has a hundred times paid all its cost. But I do not appear before 

 you to speak of the drainage and reclamation of swamp lands. This is a sub- 

 jects that needs no advocate before an audience of intelligent Michigan farmers. 

 What I have to say relates to the use of swamp muck after it has been thus 

 drained and reclaimed. 



The subject I present for your consideration is the value of swamp muck as 

 a manure, its physical and chemical properties, and the mode of using it. I do 

 not bring this material forward as the panacea for all the ills farmers are liable 

 to. I do not claim that it Avill replace all other manures, or that it will remedy 



