PEAT MUCK. 187 



"We have thus briefly glanced at some of the neglected 

 resources of manure, treating the subject from a practical stand- 

 point, and giving mainly the results of our own experience. 

 The subject is by no means exhausted. Our hills and valleys 

 abound witli leaves, bones, and other substances, concerning 

 which it would be well to ask the question propounded to 

 Ezekiel, " Can they live again ? " We may not see the miracle 

 which the prophet saw, but these decaying objects, now so 

 loathsome to the senses, are all destined to assume new forms of 

 life, and it is our privilege to aid in the transmutation. 



Mr. Clement. I must say that the essay of the chairman has 

 pleased me very much, and I presume it has every gentleman 

 present. I was glad to hear him speak with so much emphasis 

 against the monstrous waste of fertilizing materials which are 

 swept from our cities and large villages into the rivers and 

 ocean. The time will come in this country, though we may not 

 live to see it, when there will be those who will be glad to save 

 everything that can be converted into food for plants. I have 

 no doubt of that. It is time now for us to begin to save every- 

 thing which can be made plant-food. I was glad, also, to hear 

 the chairman speak so strongly in relation to the value of peat 

 meadows ; and I was particularly impressed with that, for I 

 have no peat meadow — no bogs to which I can resort ; hence I 

 have to buy. I purchased on one occasion half an acre, in 

 order to cart the soil off, and I did cart it almost all away, and 

 was well satisfied with what I did. Then, again, more recently, 

 a neighbor wanted to cut the peat in an adjoining meadow, and 

 I purchased the surface soil. There is a foot, more or less, upon 

 the surface which is not peat ; it has been frozen and thawed so 

 many times that it is all pulverized, and we use that as a com- 

 post for manure, for absorption in the vault, in the pig-pen, and 

 under cattle, and so on. 



In this connection, let me say, that last spring I found myself 

 with quite a lot of pigs on my hands, like some of my neighbors, 

 and some one remarked that he found them about as profitable 

 as female pups of an ordinary breed of dogs. But in order to 

 make the most of them we possibly could, I made a pen under 

 my cattle, and carted this surface soil from the peat meadow in 

 there. I cleared up all the manure I could in June, and early 



