558 I ASSBMBLT 



will be found to have decomposed the muck perfectly, and to be an 

 active manvne. This recipe is given both by Johnson and Dana. 



Wood ashes, decomposed muck, indeed any of the alkalies in any 

 form, except lime, — lime should never be used unless previouslj 

 slaked by salt, and then the results are chloride of lime and car- 

 bonate of soda, and none of the after changes are detrimental to 

 the soil. 



Muck as a manure has many advantages, particularly that from salt 

 marshes. Wherever it is freely used, the grub will disappear. It 

 renders sandy soil more retentive of moisture, without being more 

 compact or hard. It renders clayey soils or hard pan soils free and 

 more easily worked; if used in .xcess, it does not create diseases in 

 plants, like other manure, but will remain until called for by grow- 

 ing vegetables, absorbing ammonia, retaining excess of moisture, 

 &,c., &c. As a disinfecting agent, muck if properly dried, is nearly 

 equal to charcoal, particularly that which has been decomposed by 

 lime slacked with salt. Mixed with night soil, it renders it inodor- 

 ous in ten hours. 



For the purpose of experimenting fairly, I have used many other 

 kinds of manures; I may here enumerate : 



Leached ashes; night soil made into poudrette with muck and 

 charcoal; hair waste from tanneries; butcher's hog pen manure; 

 leather chips; hen and pigeon dung, after having been used by 

 curriers, &c., &c. Of these manures and their comparative value I 

 can speak wnth more certainty after another year, but at present, 

 my impressions are, that poudrette made with night soil, muck and 

 charcoal, as the absorbent and disinfecting agents, is worth many 

 times its bulk of any other manure. Have also used bone dust par- 

 tially decomposed by sulphuric acid, soaper's scraps, dead ani- 

 mals, &c. 



As to crop, vineyard or front lot: Plowed a poor soil last fall, 

 run surface plow 17 inches deep, and followed in bottom of furrow 

 with subsoil plow set at 18 inches, put previously on top of soil 

 40 loads to the acre of swamp muck decomposed by butcher's hog 

 pen manure. 



Planted 1250 grape vines, rows 12 feet apart, distance between 

 vines, 8 feet. For each vine made a hole 3 feet deep, 4 feet diame- 



