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dig it from the swamp and apply it before it undergoes a chem- 

 ical change is undoubtedly injurious. This change is brought 

 on rapidly by hot horse manure or unslacked lime, but with 

 colder substances it requires longer. For mixing with cow 

 manure, or putting in hog styes, it ought to be dug from the 

 swamp, at least six months, and it is better that it should be ex- 

 posed to a winter's frost, before it is used. The air then, in 

 some measure, effects the change. The action of the manure 

 soon decomposes the fibre in the muck. It falls to pieces like 

 lime, and then has an earthy appearance. In this state, a mix- 

 ture of one third manure and two thirds muck has never failed 

 with me to produce better crops of all kinds of vegetables than 

 clear manure. For the last five years we have thought it waste- 

 ful to use manure without being mixed. Before coming to this 

 strong conclusion of the benefit of muck, when used as a man- 

 ure, many experiments were made, and universally resulted in 

 favor of muck. 



We have tried bone manure to some extent, but have found 

 no benefit from it. The following are two experiments on 

 potatoes and corn. Rows were planted in three different places 

 in a field of potatoes recently broken up from the sod, A pint 

 of bone dust was put in each hill of the three rows, and well 

 mixed with the soil, A row was planted alongside of the 

 bone dust without any manure. The remainder of the field 

 was manured with compost, a shovel full to a hill. The 

 rows with compost yielded 91 bushels to a row ; the rows 

 without manure 4 bushels, and the rows with bone dust 

 2i bushels, each. When the potatoes were dug, cedar posts 

 were put down firmly, so as not to be moved by the plough, 

 in different parts of the rows where the bone dust was used. 



The following year the crop was potatoes again ; the man- 

 ure was spread on the field and ploughed in. The rows, that 

 came in a line with the cedar stakes, were all small potatoes 

 and wormy, the only wormy potatoes in the field. A field of 

 two acres was planted with corn ; the compost manure plough- 

 ed in ; the corn was planted in rows ; on half of the field bone 

 dust was sown in the row, at the rate of 55 bushels to the acre. 



