126 WHAT I KNOW OF FAEMING. 



But let any farmer turn liis whole force into a bog 

 or marsh directly after finishing his Summer harvest 

 (when it is apt to be driest and warmest), and, hav- 

 ing freed it of water to the best of his ability, dig and 

 draw out one hundred cords of its black, oozy sub- 

 stance, and he will know better than to unite in that 

 hasty judgment. If the bog be near his farm -yard, 

 let the Muck be shoveled at once into a cart and 

 drawn thither ; but, if not, let it be simply brought 

 out in wheel-barrows and deposited, not more than 

 two feet deep, on the most convenient bank that is 

 well drained and perfectly dry. Here let it dry and 

 drain till after Fall harvest, and then begin to draw 

 it gradually into the yards, and especially where it 

 may be worked over by swine and scratched over for 

 seeds and insects by fowls. Assuming that the farm- 

 yard is lowest in the centre and allows no liquid to 

 escape save by evaporation, the Muck may well be 

 dumped on the drier sides ; thence, after being 

 worked over and trampled through and through, to 

 be shoveled into the centre and replaced by fresh 

 arrivals. A hundred cords may thus be so mixed and 

 ripened as to be fit to draw out next May and used 

 as a fertilizer for Grain or Roots, though, if not so 

 treated, it should h'e exposed to sun and wind a full 

 year ; being applied in the Fall to crops of Winter 

 grain or spread upon the fields to be planted or sow- 

 ed next Spring. All the manure made during the 

 Winter should be spread over that which lies in the 

 yard at least monthly ; and then new Muck drawn in, 



