1856. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



33? 



rooms of the Beacon Dam Company, located at 

 No. 63 Maiden Lane, and they will be gratified. 

 The Company retail no goods, but keep full speci- 

 mens on hand, and the President of the Company, 

 Col. L H. Rich, so long known in Burlington, Vt. 

 as one of the most enterprising of the citizens of 

 that beautiful city, will show the curious, the mar- 

 yels of this new trade. 



"MUCK IS THE MOTHER OF THE 

 MEAL CHEST." 



No truth ought to be better established than this 

 old homely one of the Scotchman, and yet, strange 

 to say, comparatively few have yet received it in its 

 broad signification ; while a large majority reject 

 it altogether. And, although no modern discovery 

 has been of such essential service to the farmer as 

 this, that 7nuck is not only one of the best substan 

 ces in nature to gather up and preserve for future 

 use other valuable agents, but it is in itself a power- 

 ful fertilizer, many will not only refuse to avail 

 themselves of its benefits, but discourage others 

 from so doing. 



Entertaining these views, we were gratified to 

 find Swamp Muck and Salt Marsh the subject of 

 discussion at the American Institute Farmers' Club 

 in New York city, on Tuesday, the 15th of January. 

 Mr. R. L. Pell, renowned as the most extensive 

 fruit culturist in the world, and President of the 

 club, was presiding. Mr. Secretary Meigs read a 

 a paper from the London Journal of Arts and 

 Sciences, upon a patent plan of preserving meats 

 and vegetable substances used for food; and among 

 the gentlemen present to whom we were intro- 

 duced, were Judge LivrNGSTON, Mr. T. W. Field, of 

 Brooklyn, a gentleman extensively engaged in pear 

 culture, Dr.WATERBUKY, of Conn., Mr. Wy\koop, 

 and others. Our friend, Solon Robinson, the ag- 

 ricultural editor of the New York Tribune, was on 

 the spot, pen in hand, which has enabled us to give 

 below something that was said on the occasion. 



Mr. Field, of Brooklyn, said all that was wanted 

 to make swamps productive was to relieve the sur- 

 face of stagnant water. The general use of muck, 

 as commonly applied, has been deleterious, and it 

 is difficult to induce men who have once made such 

 a mistake to try again in a proper manner. But 

 he finds nothing so valuable to mix with guano or 

 potash, or any other concentrated manure, as de- 

 composed muck. He supposes there is one-thir- 

 teenth part of this State now lying idle as worth- 

 less swamp. Here good garden land near New 

 York is w'orth $300 or $400 an acre, and yet the 

 swamps are everywhere l)'ing idle. 



There are millions of loads of muscles within a 

 mile of Brooklyn, not one pound of which is ever 

 used, while all around men are complaining of the 

 failure of crops on light, sandy land. 



Mr. Brown, being called upon, said he found 

 encouragement in thus meeting a farmer's club in 



the heart of a great city ; since, even in the coun- 

 try itself, the farmer's occupation and interest is 

 neglected more than any other. It has never had 

 the fostering care of government, or of large asso- 

 ciations of men who had money to appropriate, or 

 of testamentary donations, such as are every day 

 made to colleges, libraries, and schools, but has 

 been left to work its own way up against an accu- 

 mulation of prejudice and ignorance which would 

 have crushed any other calling than that upon which 

 life itself depends. He therefore thought it a mat- 

 ter worthy of especial notice, that in a city like this, 

 amid all the busy pursuits of life, a club of men can 

 be found devoted to the purpose of discussing and 

 bringing before the world such useful matters as 

 emanate from this society ; for however little they 

 are studied in the city, they are widely read in the 

 country, and commented, and acted on, by those 

 most deeply interested. He had often republished 

 the questions discussed in this room to the advan- 

 tage and gratification of New England farmers. 

 He thought the subject had been just called up, 

 upon which Mr. Field had made some useful re- 

 marks, one that could not be talked about too 

 much. The people need line upon line to awaken 

 them to the importance of swamp draining, and the 

 use of muck as a fertilizer. 



On the subject of salt meadows, he said he 

 thought their occupation by the farmers of western 

 Massachusetts of doubtful utility. If the hay pro- 

 duced on them were used for litter, for mulching, 

 for compost heaps, and the best of it as an agree- 

 able change in fodder, and to enable the farmer to 

 keep more stock than he could otherwise keep on 

 his upland grass, it would then be a valuable acqui- 

 sition to the farm. But wherever salt or marsh 

 hay is accessible, two principles seem to have uni- 

 versally prevailed. Fii'st, to secure all that it has 

 been found possible to obtain, and secondly, to car- 

 ry away and sell all the best grasses of the upland 

 farm. The time and labor expended in cutting 

 much of the marsh grass was at the expense of the 

 growing crops, so that short harvestings of corn 

 and potatoes and roots were the common result. 

 Ditching, draining, breaking up and re-seeding, and 

 most of the improvements which ought to be annu- 

 al on the farm, were pushed aside in order to per- 

 mit all hands "to go to the marsh." The swamps 

 near home were looked upon as valueless, or only 

 served to keep the hills together, or were the im- 

 prescriptible right of the noctui-nal serenaders, the 

 frogs. And he thought now, that very few persons 

 owning and improving salt marsh, had ever re- 

 claimed a swamp, however near it might be to the 

 buildings of the farm ! 



If this were all, however, he said, the error might 

 be tolerated ; but the evils of the second part of 

 the drama are more disastrous than the first. The 

 oxen, cows, horses and sheep are kept in a great 



