280 



MUD 



MUD 



do; but also because a good crop 

 is not apt to dry up so suddenly, 

 as a poor and ttiin one. The grass 

 in our mowing grounds is often 

 said to be winter killed. It is ob- 

 servable that this happens only in 

 the little hollow places, where the 

 melting snow towards spring fornns 

 little ponds of water. A cold night 

 or two turns these ponds to cakes 

 of ice, which lying long upon the 

 roots chills them so much that they 

 cannot soon recover. Or the 

 ponds made by the thawing of the 

 ice destroy the roots by drowning 

 * them ; so winter flooding destroys 

 all the best grasses. The grass, 

 however, only of one crop is de- 

 stroyed in the hollows; for it rises 

 again by the midsummer, or au- 

 tumn following. 



Laying lands very smooth and 

 level, according to the above di- 

 rection, will do much towards pre- 

 venting this evil. But if a field 

 be perfectly flat, and apt to retain 

 too much wet when it is in tillage, 

 it should be laid down to grass in 

 broad ridges or beds. I am ac- 

 quainted with some farmers who 

 have found advantage from this 

 method. The trenches, or fur- 

 rows between the beds, should be 

 the breadth of two or three swarths 

 asunder, that the grass may be 

 mowed with the less inconve- 

 nience. It is near as much work 

 to mow a half swarth as a whole 

 one ; which is a good reason why 

 the beds should not be very nar- 

 row. Ten or twelve feet is a 

 good breadth, as it is equal to two 

 swarths. 



MUD, a black or dark-coloured 

 sediment, found at the bottom of 



ponds, rivers, creeks, ditches, and 

 wel sunken places. It is mostly 

 composed of a fine vegetable 

 mouivi, mixed with the substance 

 of peiislnid vegetables, &c. and 

 thert'fore it contains much of the 

 natural food of plants. 



In ponds and rivf.rs, this sedi- 

 ment is made up of fine dust, to- 

 gether with a rich variety of other 

 substances, which have been waft- 

 ed in the air, and have fallen into 

 the water; together with the sub- 

 tilest particles of the neighbouring 

 soils washed down into them by 

 rains. That is supposed to be the 

 richest mud, which is near to the 

 borders, and which has been alter- 

 nately flooded and fermented ; as 

 it will ferment when it lies bare, 

 in some degree. 



In rivers, and in long ditches 

 that have currents, there is a 

 greater proportion of soil in the 

 mud. It has been brought down 

 from soft, mellow lands, through 

 which the rivers pass ; and some 

 of it doubtless from beds of marie, 

 which are often found in the banks 

 of rivers, and which readily dis- 

 solve in the water. 



Some ponds are totally dried up 

 in a hot and dry summer; and all 

 ponds and rivers are so diminished 

 by a copious evaporation, as to 

 leave part, and the richest part, of 

 their beds uncovered. And these 

 beds, wh(?re there has been no ra- 

 pid current, are always found to 

 contam a rich mud. In some 

 places it reaches to a considerable 

 depth. This mud, though taken 

 from fresh waters, has been found 

 to be a valuable manure ; more 

 especially for dry, sandy and gra- 



