Ho. 199.] 119 



a 'well-fermented manure has been formed, and used advantageouslj 

 on a turnip crop. 



Notwithstanding so yaluable a fertilizer can be formed from peat 

 or muck in its natural state, it may be called an adventitious soil, 

 not capable of growing any crop, either cereal or leguminous. It is 

 antiseptic and inimical to the growth of plants used by man ; instead 

 of accelerating their growth, it changes them into matters analogous 

 to itself, owing chiefly to the humid situations in which it is usually 

 found. During the excessive drought of last summer a piece of land 

 that heretofore had been covered with water, became dry, and after 

 harvest I set eight men and three teams to work, with a view of ex- 

 tracting a quantity of muck for agricultural purposes, and during two 

 months, drew out and piled four thousand ox-cart loads, in large square 

 piles, four feet high. At the surface it was fibrous and black as ink 

 for a depth of thirteen inches, and looked like a mass of well-rotted 

 barn yard manure. I had it analized, and it proved to be precisely 

 the same in composition, not differing from an analysis of manure 

 made by Springle, and I truly believe it was much more valuable, 

 inasmuch, when once placed in the soil it will last for many years. 

 Lower down, it became of a blackish color for the depth of twenty 

 inches, and was partially decayed ; lower still, for about twenty 

 inches in depth, it was of a brow^nish grey color, and filled with vege- 

 table fibres and decayed leaves, stems of trees, &c. Still lower, for 

 the depth of six feel, it was of a deep brown color, containing decay- 

 ed stumps of large trees, still retaining their forms entire, limbs and 

 stems, together with a mixture of leaves. After having dried a quan- 

 tity of the first named, or surface muck, I undertook to manure an 

 acre, about one thousand feet distant from the pile, in order to dis- 

 cern how cheaply a proper coat could be put on land, and the differ- 

 ence between it and stable manure at 4s. a load. 



I drew upon one acre 222 ox cart-loads, which covered the ground 

 f.iirly, at a cost, including its extraction from the swamp, of $31.08, 

 or 14 cents per load. Fifty-two wagon loads of stable manure might 

 have been put on at the same price. The farmer, therefore, has to 

 calculate which he would prefer, the lasting benefits of 222 loads of 

 muck, or fif\y-two loads of manure. 



