340 



by spreading a layer of muck ten feet wide, eight inches thick, 

 and of any length desired ; on the muck four inches of ashes 

 are spread, then another layer of muck, and so on for five lay- 

 ers of each, which makes a pile five feet high, in the form of 

 a ridge. This is to lie through the following winter. As soon 

 as the frost is gone in the spring, the pile is turned over, well 

 broken, and mixed together. It then lies till the October or 

 November following, when it is spread on the land at the rate 

 of fifteen cart-loads to the acre. 



Two accurate trials of the above compost, in comparison 

 with decomposed stable manure, resulted as follows ; 4 squares 

 of equal size which are kept as lawns and mown seven or eight 

 times in a season were manured, two with the leached barilla 

 and muck compost, and two with a compost of well-rotted stable 

 manure. It was spread at the rate of twenty cart-loads to the 

 acre. The grass on the different squares was much the same 

 in quantity, but on the squares manured with the muck com- 

 post, it was decidedly of a darker and richer color, and the man- 

 ure introduced a greater quantity of white Dutch clover or ho- 

 neysuckle. The second trial was in a field mown for hay, 2^ 

 acres. The field was divided into two equal parts, as near alike 

 as possible, one half manured with muck compost, the other 

 half with rotted manure, at the rate of fifteen cart-loads to the 

 acre. Eight tons and eighty lbs. of hay were cut from the 

 field. No difference could be discovered in the parts manured 

 by the different composts. This proved that for a top-dressing, 

 the compost of leached barilla and muck is equal to stable man- 

 ure. After using it to a large extent for several years, I am still 

 in favor of it as a top-dressing. The compost manure, which 

 we use for ploughed land, is made np of two thirds muck, and 

 one third manure. The muck in all cases is mixed with the 

 manure before it ferments, and care is taken not to put in so 

 much muck as to prevent the compost's heating. The fermen- 

 tation of the manure decomposes the muck rapidly, and I am 

 convinced the greatest art in the use of muck, as a manure, is 

 to have it in a proper state before it is put upon the land. To 



