MUCK IN THE COMPOST. 236 



purposes as the one cord of stable dung, then what a mine of 

 wealth is contained in this one muck bed. 



Muck may no doubt be applied improperly, and it must be 

 better adapted to some soils than others. In order to be in 

 good condition for use, it ought to have been dug a year, that 

 it may be exposed to the frosts of winter and the heats of 

 summer. 



An individual of my acquaintance once carried from this 

 swamp, before spoken of, to a field consisting of a soil quite 

 light and sandy, a large quantity of raw muck at considerable 

 cost, without producing very great results. Muck can be more 

 advantageously used than to be used alone. When dry, its 

 power of absorption is very great, and for this reason when, 

 used in the stables, or hog pen, or under the sink spout, or in 

 the privy, large quantities of valuable manure can be made at 

 a comparatively small cost. 



It is especially adapted for use in composting with manure, 

 and when mixed with ashes makes a compost coming nearer to 

 stable dung than anything else we have. I witnessed last 

 season an experiment with muck and ashes in the drill for 

 English turnips. A large portion of the field was manured 

 with a compost of barnyard manure. A small part of it had 

 muck and ashes mixed, applied in the same manner as the 

 manure ; four bushels of ashes were mixed with twenty-five of 

 muck. The crop exceeded the other in luxuriousness and 

 yield. 



Too much can hardly be said of the importance of a free use 

 of muck upon all soils which are sandy or gravelly, to be placed 

 in the barnyards, and mixed with manure. 



Farmers in some parts of the State have, during the past few 

 years, expended large sums of money for what are called for- 

 eign manures — the phosphates, Peruvian guano, Mexican guano, 

 African guano, sea-fowl guano, muriate of lime, flour of bone, 

 ground bone, and a host of nostrums which have been conjured 

 up to deceive the farming community and put money into the 

 pockets of the vendor. If one-half of the money which had 

 been expended for these articles which are sold for fertilizers 

 had been laid out in draining or in better cultivation, or in labor 

 in composting with muck, or in saving some of the " waste of 

 manures," the farmers would to-day be better off. We do 



