37 



used for fuel. In some instances "we find that after bogs have 

 acquired a certain degree of firmness, some trees will groAv on 

 them. The cedar swamps of this section may be cited as illustra- 

 tions. The larch, hemlock and pine sometimes grow in such 

 places, but where stagnant water abounds, are stunted and 

 small. 



It is evident that muck which is formed under such circum- 

 stances cannot abound in fertilizing matter. We know that the 

 manure which is made by animals while eating poor herbage is of 

 inferior quality compared with that made while the animals are fed 

 with the best grasses, green or dry ; but here is a case where the 

 vegetation is so poor that it would be rejected by animals, and the 

 manure it would make, on decomposition, must be correspondingly 

 low in the scale of fertilizing power. The fragments of the trees 

 alluded to can hardly improve it, as the resinous matter they con- 

 tain resists decomposition, and they form, also, tannic acid, which 

 is injurious to vegetation. 



In other cases the substance of bogs has accumulated, and the 

 quantity of water, from various causes, lessened, till other kinds 

 of trees — as maple, birch and ash — take root and grow. The 

 leaves and branches which fall from these trees and decay, form a 

 richer substance than that of the moss and the cedar in the former 

 case. If, from the absence of trees, herbage plants spring up, 

 they are of a character which indicates the improvement of the 

 soil over that on which moss is the principal growth. Muck 

 from such localities, especially where there is something of a 

 current to the water, is better than that from stagnant, moss- 

 covered bogs. The motion of the water seems to wash out or 

 prevent the formation of certain acids, which often lessen the 

 value of muck. 



In other localities we find something called muck, which origi- 

 nated in a way different from any yet noticed. I allude to the 

 contents of basins which occur in upland woods. These receive 

 the wash of the surrounding land, with which is mingled the leaves 

 and branches of hard wood trees in various stasres of decav. In 

 many instances water is retained by these basins for only a portion 

 of the year, and their contents undergo a decomposition similar to 

 that which would take place in a farmer's barn-yard or hog-pen. 

 A kind of muck is formed in such cases which is far superior to 

 that from swamps and bogs. I have known cases where an appli- 

 cation of it to land planted with corn, produced equal effects on 

 that and the succeeding crops, with the same quantity of good 

 barn-yard manure applied under similar circumstances. 



So much for the different articles called muck. Their chemical 

 composition undoubtedly varies considerably. Johnson's Farmer's 

 Encyclopedia gives the result of the analysis of a sample of soil 



