106 MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



does not corroborate Dr. Dana's theory as to the use of salts in 

 curing mud . 



Mr. Fuller thought that it would not do to use the salts exclu- 

 sively or without barnyard manure. He agreed with Mr. Ware 

 that time is the great curer of muck. 



B. G. Smith had derived great advantage from the use of muck 

 in his garden. Some 3'ears ago he had one hundred and fifty cart- 

 loads brought in, which laid exposed to the atmosphere. Before 

 composting he mixed it with lime to sweeten it, using on three or 

 four cords a barrel of hme, slaked with water in which half a 

 bushel of salt had been dissolved. He then composted one-third 

 of barnyard manure with two-thirds of muck, letting it lay two 

 or three 3'ears, and turning it over two or three times. 



Henry Ross had used several hundred cords of muck and had 

 not been so successful as the previous speakers, but perhaps he had 

 not used brains enough. Any one who crosses a swamp, and 

 notices the luxuriant growth of trees and herbage, among which 

 pine stumps four feet in diameter may sometimes be seen, must be 

 convinced that it contains vast quantities of plant food. As super- 

 intendent of the Newton Cemetery, he had had occasion to grade 

 two or three acres of lawn at a time, in a sand}' soil. He had dug 

 out large quantities of muck, and, after grading, spread it on three 

 or four inches in thickness, digging it into the subsoil and replacing 

 the loam over it. He then manured highly and sodded or sowed 

 his grass seed, and found that, applied in this way, the muck was of 

 great benefit in retaining moisture. It is also useful as an absorb- 

 ent of fertilizing gases. It holds frost so late as to be objection- 

 able as a top-dressing. He intended to use a compost of bone-dust 

 and muck side by side with the Stockbridge fertilizer the coming 

 season. He did not like to use barnyard manure as a top-dressing, 

 on account of its disfiguring the lawn. 



Mr. Ware advised Mr. Ross to mix fish pomace with his meadow 

 mud and bone, but Mr. Ross replied that the odor from fish would 

 be objectionable in the cemetery. 



Mr. Fuller said that he was acquainted with the location of Mr. 

 Ross' land and peat deposits, and that there was a stream running 

 through, which might drain the virtue out of the muck. If the 

 muck was taken from such a deposit, he should not expect any ad- 

 vantage from it. Muck is of little or no benefit, when ploughed in 

 before it is decomposed. He agreed with Mr. Ware that ordinary 



