184 STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



types are'not adapted to muck. The various implements used in cultiva- 

 tion should be changed radically for muck use. All these matters will 

 be taken up in cooperation with the Farm Mechanics Department. 



Muck problems have become definite through contact with muck far- 

 mers through the State, and through contact with the muck demonstra- 

 tions which were carried on under our auspices in various parts of the 

 State; namely, in Allegan county, Huron county, and Kalamazoo county. 



Sooner or later it will be found that it will be advizable to have a 

 muck demonstration farm, upon which these many things could be tried 

 out. 



The work is to a great extent unorganized. It should be divided into 

 its two distinct phases, the intensive and the extensive muck farming. 

 The intensive farming is a field which requires a special attention to 

 truck crops and the various problems arising from the truck crops grown 

 on muck. The matter of celery seed, celery varieties, celery diseases, the 

 entire celery problem, could very well use a man continually upon it, 

 and the fact that it represents an industry in Michigan which goes into 

 the millions, is sufficient to urge the appointment of such a man in the 

 near future, who would deal with all the muck problems dealing with 

 muck truck crops. The entire onion question has never been worked out 

 satisfactorily in the State. The growers are ignorant of methods used in 

 other states; they are not acquainted with the storage information, with 

 diseases, and insect control, with handling of muck, etc. They have many 

 problems, and it is my belief that the only way these problems can be 

 handled is through the specialist who is concerned with all the various 

 aspects of the truck crops on muck. 



There is the consideration of the extensive muck agriculture which 

 is only a part of the problem of the reclamation and utilization of large 

 areas in the State at present unused. It brings up the problem of the 

 management of these areas, animal husbandry and cropping. According 

 to a careful estimate by United States drainage engineers, there are more 

 than five million acres of muck in Michigan. This office has been giving 

 these matters study. Means should be available for carrying our in- 

 formation to all the counties in the State, rather than to the few counties 

 that we have had time to work in. 



To a great extent the time of this office has been taken up with the 

 southwestern counties because of the serious celery problems which have 

 arisen this year, problems which have to do with adulterated seed, diseases, 

 and plant bed failures, consequently my planned efforts in other directions 

 have not materialized. Still, it was possible to carry out several demon- 

 strations which are now growing and seem to indicate very interesting things. 



The largest demonstration carried out is a nine acre plat on the Wood- 

 ward farm in Constantine, where the Muck Farmer's Association will 

 meet for a summer meeting on July 15, and at which time we will go over 

 our problems. We have started a demonstration plat at Traverse City, 

 at the State Hospital. This is the second year of a demonstration plat 

 at Deckerville in the eastern part of the. State, which was a complete suc- 

 cess in so far that a farmer made the unsolicited statement that that demon- 

 stration was the most valuable farm work, and^had^repaid him more than 

 any work that he had ever done. The results of this demonstration were 

 printed in full iri the "Michigan Farmer" and sent to all the members of 

 our mailing list which numbers about nine hundred. 



