94 



On the Preparation and Use of Manures. Vol. VIII. 



way of ploughing in such green crop?, is to 

 pass a heavy roller over them, which lays 

 the plants close to the ground, and greatly 

 facilitates covering them by the plough. It 

 is believed that corn, sown broad-cast, and 

 when Just showing its tassels, cut and co- 

 vered by the plough, would be one of the 

 best crops that could be chosen for this pur- 

 pose. A man or boy, in this case, would be 

 required to follow the plough, to place the 

 corn in the furrow for covering, at the next 

 passage of the plough. Taken at this time, 

 corn abounds in nutritive matter, and could 

 scarcely fail of proving a first-rate fertilizer 

 of the soil. 



Peal. — A variety of decomposed vegetable 

 matters, or those partially decomposed, are 

 used as manures. The fallen leaves of trees 

 are of this class ; but the instances are few 

 in which they will repay the expense of ga- 

 thering; perhaps never, in the United States, 

 where other sources of an abundant sup- 

 ply of manures are so numerous. If col- 

 lected, the best method of using them, is to 

 litter stables, or form beds for pigs, or mix 

 at once with other manures; as, in such 

 ways, they absorb urine and other fluids that 

 might escape, and together undergo decom 

 position. But the most important source of 

 decayed vegetable matter, and one, the value 

 of which is not yet by any means sufficiently 

 understood or appreciated, is to be found in 

 the great deposits of this substance in swamps, 

 low meadows, and peat bogs, in all parts of 

 our country. On the subject of this kind of 

 manure, there is no authority equal to Dr. 

 Dana, of Lowell, Massachusetts. Accord- 

 ing to him, peat consists of soluble or inso- 

 luble geine or humus, with a few salts. 

 From an analysis of ten specimens from dif- 

 ferent parts of Massachusetts, the higest and 

 the lowest in the scale of soluble geine, is 

 selected and given here, as well as two spe- 

 cimens of pond mud. This is done, as the 

 value of neither peat nor such mud is suffi- 

 ciently appreciated by the farmer; and they 

 are neglected when they might easily be 

 made a source of the greatest fertility : 



> Soluble Insoluble Total Salts and 



S Geine. Geine. Geine. Silicates. 



Pond Mud. 



Comparison with cow dung. — In his ana- 

 lysis of various manures, he takes for his 

 standard, cow dung; and it is not a little re- 

 markable that the constituents of peat and 

 cow dung, should so nearly coincide. Dr. 

 Dana's estimate of the several parts of peat 

 of average quality, and of cow dung, is as 



follows. The peat was fresli dug, in this 

 case ; before, it was dried at 300°. 



Peat. Cow Dung. 



Water, 65. 83.G0 



Salts 1. .05 



Geine, 14. 15.45 



Peat composts. — But notwithstanding this 

 decayed vegetable matter is so rich in the 

 organic elements of plants, experience proves 

 that, applied in its natural state, it is almost 

 valueless as a manure, compared with stable 

 manures; and hence the reason it has been 

 so little prized. Science has shown the 

 cause of this result, and the means of obvi- 

 ating it ; or, in other words, of unlocking 

 the fertilizing powers of these vegetable de- 

 posits. To be able to give out ammonia, the 

 peat or swamp muck must be fermented ; and 

 this may be effected by the direct addition 

 of alkalies, or by making the peat into a 

 compost with fresh manures. If alkalies 

 are added, the quantity neces.sary to bring 

 a ton of fresh peat into the same condition, 

 so far as regards ammonia, as cow dung, 

 would be "92 lbs. of potash, 61 lbs. of soda, 

 or 16 to 20 bushels of common house ashes." 

 But the farmer will usually find the best me- 

 thod of using peat, will be to combine the 

 peat with manure, by mixing it with dung 

 in his yards, or making it into compost. 

 Many experiments have been made by some 

 of the best farmers and gardeners of Massa- 

 chusetts, in relation to the use of peat ; and 

 all unite in pronouncing it most valuable. 

 Mr. Phinney, of Lexington, says, that "a 

 cord of green dung converts twice its bulk 

 of peat, into a manure of equal value to 

 itself; that is, a cord of clear stable dung, 

 composted with two of peat, forms a manure 

 equal in value to three cords of green dung." 

 Mr. Robbins, of Watertown, though owning 

 a large stock, makes no use of their ma- 

 nures. These he sells; but keeps his farm 

 in a high state of fertility, by mixing swamp 

 muck or peat with spent ashes from his soap 

 and candle factory. The proportions he uses 

 are, one part of spent ashes to three of peat, 

 dug up in the fall and mixed with the ashes 

 in the spring. After shoveling over two or 

 three times, it is spread and ploughed in. 

 The effect is felt at once; and so far the 

 manure has proved durable. 



Use of peat or siDa7np muck. — According 

 to Mr. Colman, in his Fourth Report, two 

 thirds of the manure used on the extensive 

 garden and farm of Mr. Gushing, near Bos- 

 ton, is made from meadow muck or peat. 

 The compost, for top-dressing meadow and 

 ffrass lands, is made by taking the muck 

 from the pit in August or September, where 

 it lies to the next year. The compost heap 

 is then made on some convenient place, by 



