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good article of muck is little less than decomposed vegetable matter. 

 Leaves, wood, weeds and grass as they have fallen have been washed 

 into these deposits and decomposed under water so slowly and. so 

 excluded from the atmosphere that they have lost little of their origi- 

 nal elements. Here they have been preserved by nature, as in the 

 crucible of the chemist, for ages, and now lie in rich and vast deposits 

 for the use of the orange grower. Some who have supposed they were 

 using muck have been mistaken. They have foun.d a black sand with 

 a little vegetable matter with it. If they had taken a little of it and 

 washed it they would have found little else than sand, and some of it r 

 that of a brown granular appearance, of a similar nature to "hard 

 pan." Such a deposit is of no value, and that containing the brown 

 sand actually injurious to the orange. Some who have used this kind 

 of material have failed to discover any benefit and have cried out 

 against all muck. But the time has passed for this. Too many have 

 used muck and found it valuable for its merits to remain longer 

 unknown. "Where this deposit is close to the grove the most economi- 

 cal way to use it is to haul it at once from the bed and spread it 

 broadcast over the ground and plow it in. It should not be allowed to 

 dry in the sun, as it then becomes lumpy. If turned under the 

 surface it soon incorporates itself with the soil. After it is applied 

 and turned under a top dressing of ashes or lime would prove bene- 

 ficial. If the deposit is some distance from the grove it is more 

 economical to throw it into heaps near the bed, but under the shade, 

 and still better to add a little lime or ashes as it is thrown in uniform 

 layers. The pile soon heats and drys out leaving the muck as friable 

 as a bed of sand. It is then very light and easily handled and 

 carted. In this condition it can be used in almost any quantities ; the 

 only danger to be feared from excessive use is in piling it up so deep 

 over the roots as to smother them for awhile. And yet if the crown 

 roots are kept uncovered the surface roots soon find their way to the 

 muck near the surface. The writer has had the orange roots to pene- 

 trate, for several inches above the general surface, a pile of muck left 

 for a few weeks near a tree. 



Before trees reach the bearing state they should be fed 

 with nitrogenous manures; but after they have begun to bear 



