NINETEENTH CHAPTER. 



MUCK AND ITS POSSIBILITIES. 



i^UR. swamps often contain a gold mine of plant 

 ^^^ foods if we only know how to make the right 

 use of the materials. It is true, there is a great 

 difference in the value of. different samples of peaty 

 and mucky soils, some being much richer than 

 others in nitrogen, some containing mineral elements 

 of plant foods, while others do not, and some being 

 well-nigh worthless. 



The kind I have now under consideration is an 

 average sample of black muck, as generally found 

 in bogs and swampy meadows, and which consists 

 almost altogether of decayed vegetable matter, so 

 saturated with water, sponge -like, that the liquid 

 element forms more than three fourths of its weight. 



Suppose we have a soil which needs the mechani- 

 cal effect that stable manure gives, about as much 

 as it does the plant food which the latter contains; 

 in other words, soil in such condition as to require 

 the addition of some bulky, porous substance to 

 open it up; to render it pulverizable, to furnish the 



