Holding and Increasing Fertility of Soil 



in agricultural papers as to the value of raw 

 muck when applied to the land. Muck in its 

 unsubdued state is more of a fuel-peat than a 

 fertilizer; it needs to be subdued by lying out 

 over winter so that the frost may disintegrate 

 it and make it available for plant food, but I 

 have found that it may be made immediately 

 available in its raw state by burying or covering 

 it with a layer of soil to exclude the air and re- 

 tain moisture; in this form it gradually changes 

 to humus and plants grown in it do exceedingly 

 well. Among interesting experiments conducted 

 to test its use was this conclusive one: deep 

 holes were dug in beds that were to be planted 

 to bedding plants — cannas, salvias and the like; 

 these holes were filled with the raw muck and 

 covered with the soil of the garden and into this 

 the plants were set and the usual culture fol- 

 lowed; the results were surprising; salvias, that 

 ordinarily made a growth of about thirty inches 

 reached the astonishing height of nearly five feet 

 and were a mass of blooms ; still more astonishing 

 results were discovered in clearing the beds in 



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