MUCK ON SANDY SOILS. 195 



no great amount, but it is sometliing more than is usually 

 raised throughout the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. I 

 think, therefore, that we need to do all we can to make 

 manures, and when we get them, to apply them with the utmost 

 care and discrimination, so as to lose nothing that we get. 

 They are too valuable to be lost, and too valuable to be 

 misapplied. 



Mr. Hubbard. It has been said by Gov. Brown, that there is 

 nothing which requires so much skill as managing a farm, and 

 he has alluded to our muck beds. I wish to ask him one 

 question. Supposing the soil on which he wishes to use his 

 manure is a dark, heavy soil, inclining more to clay than sand, 

 which would he prefer, sand or muck, to mix with the manure 

 to go on to the soil I speak of? 



Mr. Brown. I think that on a granitic soil, generally, I 

 should prefer a certain portion of sand ; and yet my experience 

 has been, that even on heavy granitic soils, with clay under- 

 neath, the muck has worked to a charm — admirably. There 

 are lands lying near here which would, I think, illustrate that 

 remark. On uplands that are moist, such as we call " runs " 

 in New England, I should rather have a top-dressing of what 

 we find under a granite surface frequently. It is not trap sand ; 

 it is flint sand, perhaps mixed with a portion of clay. I should 

 greatly prefer that as a top-dressing. But on sandy loams, and 

 on decidedly sandy land — that is, eighty per cent, of sand — I 

 should want clay, too ; but I should begin with peat, until I had 

 got the sandy land colored somewhat, and then, unless clay cost 

 too much, I should certainly add clay. It is really wonderful 

 what may be accomplished with sandy land by the application 

 of a portion of clay. 



This discussion is so interesting to me, and so valuable and 

 important as regards getting a good living in this world, that I 

 never know when to stop talking when I get upon this subject. 

 I believe we can enrich any land without applying a spoonful of 

 manure ; the atmosphere is at work for us all the time. 



Mr. Hubbard. I speak of this because I know many farmers 

 who have gone to sand holes for the material to make a com- 

 post that is better fitted to the kind of soil I spoke of than 

 muck, and they have obtained better results from the sand. 



