CHEMICAL DEPARTMENT. 413 



A comparison of these celery soils brings out the fact that, except in 

 the amount of sand and silicates, the composition sliows a close similarity. 

 The common supposition that oxide of iron is especially injurious in celery 

 soils is not borne out by these analyses. Sulphate of iron is very injuri- 

 ous, and when more than one per cent is present no valuable crop will 

 grow. A specimen of muck was sent here from Decatur which was barren 

 from this cause. 



PROPERTIES OF GOOD MUCK. 



In the moist condition, all these kinds of muck have a deep brown-black 

 color, the blacker the better; they are friable, easily breaking between the 

 fingers, and are free from coarse, fibrous material ; they have a pleasant 

 earthy smell but no acid odor, and are entirely free from acid reaction. 

 AVhen moist muck of good quality is pressed against blue litmus paper so 

 as to wet the paper, the blue color remains and no reddening takes place. 

 Any muck that will redden blue litmus is unfit for cultivation while this 

 acid condition remains. Sour muck is sorry material for cultivation. All 

 the specimens of infertile muck that have been sent here for analysis — 

 muck that would not grow weeds even — have been of this sour class and 

 would turn blue litmus paper red very rapidly. By draining and weather- 

 ing such soils by exposing to the action of frost, and especially by the 

 application of lime, wood ashes, even leached ashes, the acid condition i^an 

 be removed and these barren soils made to produce abundant crops of a 

 certain class. 



OTHER MUCK CROPS. 



Celery is not the only plant that can be profitably raised on muck lands. 

 Cranberry farms have been made on the mucky soil near St. Joseph and 

 cranberi-ies of superior quality produced. But success with this crop 

 requires a soil free frofei acid; patches of sterile muck are often found in 

 parts of cranberry fields, but in every instance the muck was sour. 



Another crop distinctive of Michigan cultivation is the peppermint. The 

 center of peppermint farming and distilling the oil seems to be in St. 

 Joseph county. A request was made for a specimen of the muck that pro- 

 duced such large crops of the mint but none came. Another letter was 

 sent which brought the following reply: "Yours of March 11th received. 



Your first communication was referred to , of this town, who 



is the largest mint raiser in the State, and who promised me he would for- 

 ward the soil desired, but I saw him this morning and he said the ground 

 was so frozen that he could not get it without being to greater expense 

 than he wished to incur. The facts are that he does not want published 

 to the world the benefits of reclaiming marsh land, for that is all there is 

 in it. Any marsh land that can be drained so that it can be worked and 

 still hold enough moisture to carry the crop through is good enough mint 

 soil. * * * I could go twenty rods from my store and get marsh 

 soil and send you but it would not be essentially different from what you 

 could get on the Agricultural farm," 



My modest fiiend, the mint grower, had "oil in his vessel," but was 

 unwilling to "let his light shine before men." However, a college student 

 brought a specimen of the mint muck, but too late for analysis and mount- 



