66 MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



wash the manure into the soil. Some loss would occur when 

 spread on the soil if the ground was frozen. 



Mr. Ware, referring to what Prof. Atwater had said of the 

 tendency of manure to operate on the soil, asked if there was not 

 something gained b}' mixing fermenting material with plant food 

 which does not ferment, as, for instance, stable manure or glue 

 refuse with meadow mnck. 



Prof. Atwater said that he should answer to Mr. Ware's ques- 

 tion, most emphaticall3\ yes. With all our science we find our 

 scientific knowledge most valuable when it leads us back to the 

 simple processes which nature produces. Nature provides pro- 

 cesses of fermentation and decay by which highly organized animal 

 and vegetable matters are decomposed and brought into simple 

 forms, in which they can be used by the plant. Some samples of 

 meadow muck are richer in plant food than any manure except the 

 very best. These produce no effect in their natural condition, but 

 by drying, decay, and fermentation, the bad qualities are removed 

 and the good brought out. There is a great deal of difference in 

 the quality of different deposits of muck and peat. In composting 

 we should use materials which will aid the work of decomposition, 

 and at the same time supply plant food, such as lime, plaster, or 

 potash in its cheapest form. These will change useless, or worse 

 than useless, materials into valuable forms. It is better to mix 

 several materials ; a mixture does more good than a single ingre- 

 dient. 



Mr. Moore said that many j-ears ago he made himself believe in 

 compost, but his crops said it was a fraud. Some peat is so full 

 of sulphate of iron as to be injurious to plants. Farmers make a 

 compost heap on the land, but how can you compost manure better 

 than by ploughing it in ? 



Prof. Atwater assented to the last point made b}' Mr. Moore, as 

 regards manure, but asked. Suppose you have a good muck bed in 

 the back pasture, but cold and wet ; will it not be profitable to dig 

 it out, dr}^ it, cart it to the barn, and compost it? The quantity of 

 plant food in muck is very variable ; he had looked at one bed and 

 advised not to use it, but beds composed of decayed leaves and 

 branches are ver}^ valuable, sometimes containing more nitrogen 

 than barnyard manure. 



Mr. Wctherell said that we wanted to use soil or muck as an 

 absorbent, but he knew of a farmer who had got tired of carting 

 the soil of his fields to his barnyard and then carting it back again. 



