NATURE OF SWAMP-MUCK. 139 



on this, witliout sand or fertilizers, potatoes were planted. 

 The crop was a failure, althougli the season was favorable. 

 Root-crops, the cereals, and even the better grasses, do not 

 flourish on a deeply ploughed muck-meadow, so far as my 

 observation extends ; and there is indeed no reason to expect 

 different results. These crops all require potash and phos- 

 phoric acid for complete development, — agents which are not 

 present, except in minute quantities, in any muck-field. Ex- 

 periments with muck-soils upon all kinds of plants in pots, 

 carried through several seasons, have supplied interesting 

 facts ; but the statements regarding them must be left for 

 another paper and another occasion. 



VIEWS UPON THE VALUE OF MUCK. 



The laboratory researches upon muck undertaken at my 

 farm, of which a brief and imperfect account is here present- 

 ed, correspond essentially in result with those of Professor 

 Johnson, and all other chemists at home and abroad who 

 have entered upon like labors. Such, however, is not uni- 

 formly the case with the practical use of the material by 

 farmers in the field. A large number of quite intelligent 

 men declare its influence in the direction of soil improve- 

 ment to be marked and decisive. Others are so loose and 

 extravagant in their statements of benefit received, as to 

 render them of very doubtful accuracy. Nothing is more 

 deceptive and uncertain than observations upon farm-crops, 

 and the influence of soils and fertilizers, when no careful 

 methods and no weights and measures are employed. The 

 eye, used only in a casual way in the hurry of farm-work, is 

 not a safe guide. Much of the confusion and uncertainty in 

 which practical husbandry is involved are due to hasty, care- 

 less, unmethodical observations in the field. Better methods 

 and more care are desirable. 



CONCLUSION. 



To sum up the whole question of the agricultural value of 

 muck, it may be said that it is of great value as an absorbent 

 of liquid manures ; and, where it can be obtained easily, large 

 stores of air-dried muck should be secured and ijsed by every 

 farmer. As an application alone to soils of any variety, — 

 silicious, dry, humid, or any other, — it has a very small 



