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methods of using it, are not generally understood. 

 A highly intelligent member of this society, re- 

 cently invited me into his fields, and I have seen but 

 little corn of fairer promise any where, than was 

 growing upon land broken up the present season, 

 because bound out, and where the only dressing used 

 was fifteen or sixteen cart loads of compost to the 

 acre; three fourths of which was meadow mud, the 

 remainder stable manure. Another of our members, 

 intelligent and scientific, has a fine field of corn ma- 

 nured with meadow-mud, mixed with quantities of 

 stable manure and wood ashes so small as to make 

 the whole ai uncommonly cheap dressing for that 

 crop. This field, perhaps, will teach some valuable 

 lessons. I say no more, because, its owner will un- 

 doubtedly be the willing organ of its communication 

 with this society. Unmixed with any other ingredi- 

 ents, this swamp mud, after being rendered friable by 

 the frost, is a very considerable fertilizer of light soils ; 

 and will well repay the expense of using it as a top 

 dressing upon grass lands I will here remark that 

 the meadows, in which good muck abounds, are 

 among our most productive soils and most profitable 

 for cultivation. The necessary draining may often 

 be accomplished while one is obtaining muck for 

 the manure heap. Where there is sufficient consist- 

 ency for the use of the turf-spade, and where a new 

 ditch is to be opened, this labor may conveniently be 

 performed in winter, when the meadow is so firmly 

 frozen as to make it convenient and easy removing 

 the mud to the upland. This is no mere theory. 

 These feet and these hands know to the full extent, 



