XXI. 



MUCK HOW TO UTILIZE IT. 



THE time will be, I cannot doubt, when chemists 

 can tell us the exact positive or relative value of a 

 cord of Muck how this swamp or that pond affords 

 a choice article, while the product of another will 

 hardly pay for digging. There" may be chemists 

 whose judgment on these points is now worth far 

 more than mine, since mine is worth exactly nothing. 

 I do know, however, that Muck is a valuable fer- 

 tilizer, and that digging and composting it does pay, 

 I judge that I have transferred at least three thou- 

 sand loads of it from my swamp to my upland ; and 

 the effect has been all that I expected. Let me 

 speak of Muck generally, in the light of my own ex- 

 perience. 



Wherever rocks in ridges come to the surface of a 

 valley, plain, or gentle slope, water is apt to be col- 

 lected or retained by them, forming ponds or shal- 

 lower pools, which may or may not dry up in Sum- 

 mer, but which are seldom dry late in Autumn, when 

 plants are dying and leaves are falling. The latter, 

 caught in their descent by the harsh winds of the 



