MUCK HOW TO UTILIZE IT. 125 



season, are swept along the bare, dry ground, till 

 they strike the water, which arrests their progress 

 and soon engulfs them. Thus an acre of watery sur- 

 face will often collect and retain the dead foliage of 

 five to ten acres of forest ; and next Fall will render 

 its kindred tribute, and the next, and the next, for 

 ever. There cannot be less than fifty millions of 

 acres of Swamps in our old States (including Maine) ; 

 whereof I presume the larger area was covered with 

 water until the slow contributions of leaves and 

 weeds filled them above the level at which water is 

 no longer retained on the surface. And still, they 

 are so moist and boggy, and their rank vegetation is 

 so retentive, that the leaves swept in from the adja- 

 cent hills and glades are firmly retained and aid to 

 increase the depth of their vegetable mold, which 

 varies from a few inches to twenty and even thirty 

 feet. In my old County of Westchester, I roughly 

 estimate that there are at least five thousand acres of 

 bog, whereof but a very few hundreds have yet been 

 subdued to the uses of cultivation. 



Whoever digs a quantity of Swamp Muck and ap- 

 plies it directly to his fields or garden, will derive 

 little or no immediate benefit therefrom. It is green, 

 sour, cold, and more likely to cover his farm thickly 

 and persistently with Sorrel, Eye-smart, Hag- weed, 

 Pursley, and other infestations, than to add a bushel 

 per acre to his crop of Grain or Roots. And thus 

 many have tried Muck, and, on trial, pronounced it 

 a pestilent humbug. 



