APPENDIX. 241 



tion of water. This hardening effect was not observed to take 

 place with the muck treated with the dry ashes, or in the ma- 

 nure compost, and may have arisen from the insufficient quan- 

 tity of alkali, used in the case mentioned. 



In another case, one lb. of soda ash, and one lb. of soft soap, 

 were mixed with four bushels of muck, and all put in a fifty gal- 

 lon tub, and the tub filled with water, and left to stand five or 

 six days, with an occasional stirring ; at the end of that period, 

 the dark coloured water was dipped off and applied to various 

 garden plants and vegetables, and the tub again filled with wa- 

 ter, and the muck stirred up, and after a day or two the water 

 was again dipped off and applied as before, and the tub again 

 filled with water. This process was continued for two or three 

 weeks in the early heat of the season, and the muck, though 

 gradually wasting, without additional alkali, continued to fer- 

 ment from time to time, and yield black liquor, to appearance 

 nearly as rich as at first. Rapid growth of the plants, followed 

 in all cases when it was applied, and its effect upon a lot of 

 onions, would have been ascertained with some degree of accu- 

 racy, had not a " hired man," took it into his head that the few 

 rows purposely left for comparison, were suffering by unwitting 

 neglect, and gave them a "double dose," thereby equalizing 

 the growth, and sacrificing the experiment to his honest no- 

 tions of fair dealing, which required that all should be treated 

 alike. In another case, a muck compost dressing, formed by 

 previously slacking quicklime with a strong brine of common 

 salt, to disengage the acid of the salt, that its soda might act on 

 the muck when in contact, was applied as a top dressing for 

 corn, without any perceptible effect, perhaps for want of skill 

 in compounding. 



Facts abundantly testify to the fertilizing properties of 

 swamp muck and peat, when brought to a right state, and the 

 subject of your inquiry, perhaps yields to no other, at the pres- 

 ent time, in point of importance to our good old Commonwealth. 

 Taking your estimate of the weight of fresh dug muck or peat, 

 and Professor Hitchcock's estimate of the quantity in the state, 

 and the saving of one cent per ton, in the expense of neutrali- 

 zing its acidity, and fitting it for use in agriculture, when ap- 

 plied to all our swamp muck and peat, will amount to an ag- 



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