OF WHAT VALUE IS IT? 37 



Value as Cropping Soil. Raw muck with- 

 out any improvements is worth about $5 to 

 $10 an acre; with some improvement it is 

 worth $50 to $75 ; and with more improve- 

 ment, in fact fitted for cropping, it should 

 bring from $75 to $350 an acre. Muck at 

 Canastota, N. Y., two miles from railroad 

 shipping station, improved and under crops, 

 brings $300 to $350 an acre, and very little 

 for sale. Back a mile or two the price is 

 somewhat less, dropping lower as distance 

 from shipping point increases until low price, 

 raw muck is reached. 



The A. M. Todd Company's 2,100 acres in 

 Michigan, worth $i or less an acre 25 years 

 ago, are worth $200 to $300 an acre at 

 present and probably could not be purchased 

 for that figure. Some tracts of muck partly 

 developed located in Orange county, N. Y., 

 sold within the year 1913 for an average of 

 $65 and $75 an acre. 



A short sketch published in the Market 

 Growers Journal about the Arkport, N. Y., 

 celery beds gives some idea of the crop value 

 of muck. 



"Twenty years ago residents of a -secluded 

 valley in the 'Hill District' of southwestern 

 New York asked the Legislature to drain a 



