-^ @<Li^tior} 3)raLc^p. $- 



Muck and other Fertilizers. 



•'»§*2. Hit., — I think I wrote you some months ago, that I had a large quantity of 

 swamp muck close to my orchard. I am now drawing it into my barnyard, to put the 

 w inter's make of manure on it, and as I have thousands of loads of it, 1 would like to haul 

 it direct from the swamp to the orchard (which is much nearer than to the barn), and as 

 I cannot compost it all, I want to put a quantity on my thirty acre orchard this fall and 

 winter. Will the muck give off its nitrogen and other plant food in time, and nothing be 

 lost, by putting it direct on the land, and nothing else for a year or more ? 



I am going to compost a hundred or more loads of muck with unleached wood ashes 

 and ground bones, which I can get here. Are the ground as good as dissolved bones ? In 

 putting the muck direct on the land, I put one load to four trees, and a part of it I will 

 put about two bushels of unleached wood ashes to the load of muck, and one hundred 

 pounds of ground bones to the acre, broadcast, as far as the limbs extend As the muck is 

 spread as it is hauled, 1 then run a cultivator or drag it over at once. I cannot put ashes 

 and bones this fall on all that I haul into my orchard, but I can in the spring, at least on 

 the most of it. Wdl the hones give me the same benefit next year if they are not put on 

 t he land before spring, as they would if put on this fall ? Yours truly, 



J. K. Fuller. 

 Reply by Prof. Craig, of the Central Experimental Farm, Ottawa. 



i. Muck is chiefly valuable for its nitrogen contained in the organic 

 matter, or elements of semi-decomposed plants. Under favorable circum- 

 stances, this nitrogen is available as food for farm crops ; but in addition to its 

 value as a nitrogenous food, its mechanical effect is beneficial to most soils, by 

 improving their tilth and texture. A soil which is too heavy may be made light 

 and more porous by an application of muck. Muck without fermentation does 

 not readily give up its nitrogen to growing plants, and if applied to a soil with- 

 out fermenting, the immediate result will not be very apparent or marked. 

 Nothing will be lost by applying it direct to the soil without composting, but, 

 as already stated, the returns will be much slower than if the elements of plant 

 food ki it have been freed by the chemical action which takes place during the 

 process of fermentation Very small results might be expected the first year 

 from an application of muck which had been unfermented or uncomposted. 



2. The difference between ground bones and dissolved bones is simply 

 that the elements of fertility in dissolved bones are more immediately available 

 to plants ; whereas, in ground bones they only become available by the process 

 of decay and fermentation, and, therefore, results come much more slowly. As 

 in the case of muck, little result might be expected the same year from an 

 application of ground bones, this fertilizer not being readily soluble. A com- 

 post made of unleached wood ashes, ground bones and muck would be a most 

 valuable fertilizer, and one from which immediate and desirable results might 

 be expected. The whole question is, whether the fertilizer is desired for imme- 

 diate use or not. Ground bone undissolved, like muck, is slow in giving up its 

 fertilizing constituents. Dissolved in sulphuric acid, or acted upon by ferments, 



(364) 



