188 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



affording nourishment to plants, and in improving the texture 

 of the soil. 



Any farmer who has a good bed of muck on his farm, can 

 make annually, at little expense, at least as much and as valuable 

 manure from this source, as from all the stock he keeps, and I 

 know of some farms in this county which have been brought to 

 a high state of cultivation, on which more than one-half of the 

 manure that has been applied, has consisted of this fertilizer 

 properly composted. I have seen the finest crop of corn grown 

 on light land the first year of its ploughing, with no other 

 manure than muck exposed one winter, mixed with a small 

 quantity of leached ashes. 



Sea manures, comprising rock-weed, kelp and muscle bed, are 

 valuable as manures, from the fertilizing substances they contain 

 and from the salt they furnish. The muscle bed contains much 

 animal matter which is valuable, particularly in compost. 

 These manures are much used upon the farms bordering upon 

 the sea-coast, and their great value can be seen in the fertility 

 of the lands on which they have been used. 



Salt is also important to use in moderate quantities, upon 

 most lands and in compost. It furnishes some food to vegeta- 

 tion, and is a neutralizer of acids. Its effects when applied on 

 some lands in the county, have been very marked. But great 

 care should be used that it be not applied in too great quantities. 



Wood ashes, leached or unleached, are also of great value as 

 a manure. Ashes comprise all the incombustible ingredients of 

 plants, and are not only lasting in their effects, but from the 

 mineral substances of which they are composed, are strongly 

 forcing. It is doubtful whether there is any more economical 

 fertilizer that can be used than ashes, at the prices for which they 

 are usually sold to the soap boilers. There is not that difference 

 in the value of unleached and leached ashes which many 

 suppose. By leaching a considerable portion of the potash is 

 extracted, bvit this is compensated for in part, by the lime and 

 other substances mixed with the ashes in the leaching, and the 

 leached ashes combine more readily with the salts in the atmos- 

 phere. But it should be remembered that ashes do not com- 

 prise all that is necessary for the growth of a plant, and that 

 from their stimulating properties they serve to accelerate the 

 decomposition of the mould with which they come in contact, 



