1861. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



207 



muck to one of manure ; but yard manure, being 

 coarser and not so strong and active, will not 

 bear more than equal parts of muck with it. In 

 either case, however, somewhat larger quantities 

 of muck in proportion to manure may be used, 

 provided the muck has previously lain a year or 

 more in pile on dry land, to drain, disintegrate, 

 and in a measure part with its acidity. 



At the suitable time in spring, p'ow your 

 green sward nine or ten inches deep, say with a 

 sod and subsoil plow, if the land is free enough 

 of obstructions to permit the use of that kind of 

 plow; if not, then use a large enough plow of 

 the common green sward form to accomplish that 

 depth of furrow. The plowing should be accu- 

 rately and nicely executed, making the furrows 

 meet and match well, and shutting the sod down 

 beneath securely out of reach of subsequent til- 

 lage. Then spread the compost broadcast on the 

 surface of the plowed land, putting it on as liber- 

 ally as your heaps will allow. Seventy-five loads 

 per acre is a good dressing, but thirty-five or for- 

 ty loads is still better. After evenly spreading 

 the manure, plow it in about four inches deep, 

 with a light, sharp plow, guaged to tiie right 

 depth by a wheel on the beam. This incloses the 

 manure perfectly with mellow earth, which by its 

 mellowness, absorbs and holds the goodness of 

 the manure, and yet the compost is in a situation 

 to be immediately, as well as at all other times, 

 available to the growing crop, and to receive suit- 

 able atmospheric influences to promote a perfect 

 decomposition, and to enliven and improve the 

 upturned soil. Green manure, as such, is not 

 much more the food of plants than a raw potato 

 would be for man. The valuable properties of 

 manure are brought out by decomposition. That 

 develops the fertilizing salts which the roots of 

 the crop take up, and which at once give the 

 plant that healthy, deep green color, and thrifty 

 growth which delight the eye and ensure the 

 crop. The green raw manure imparts no such 

 hue to the plants, but gives instead a yellow 

 tinge and a less healthy, vigorous growth. Then, 

 too, green manure, by the heat it generates in 

 pile, is very serviceable in converting muck and 

 other crude vegetable and earthy matters with 

 which it may be composted, into a decomposed 

 and suitable state to become themselves the food 

 of plants, and for this reason, if for no other, it 

 is better economy to compost green manure than 

 to use it to any great extent alone. 



2. Doubtless you rightly judge that your bed 

 of muck is a valuable deposit for increasing the 

 fertility of the farm. To manage the muck to ad- 

 vantage, the first thing to be done, is to suitably 

 drain the swamp. Open a substantial and capa- 

 cious main ditch from the swamp to ground 

 low enough to carry off the water, digging the 

 ditch as low as, or a little lower than the deepest 

 portion of the muck in the swamp. Then ditch 

 around a given square or piece of muck, so as to 

 separate it on all sides from the main swamp, 

 thus cutting off the water, and leaving this piece 

 of muck high and dry, that it may be convenient- 

 ly dug and carted out to dry land at pleasure. 

 Endeavor to get beforehand with the muck, so as 

 to have a suitable quantity of it always on hand 

 in heaps on dry land, and that has thus lain for a 

 year before it must needs be used for composting. 

 The muck thus becomes dry and pulverized, and 



considerably freed of acidity, and is a more per- 

 fect absorbent of the goses, liquids and salts of 

 manure, and may be used in larger proportions 

 with manure, than if it were taken soggy and raw 

 from the swamp. 



After thus lying in heap a suitable time, the 

 muck may be drawn directly to the field where it 

 is to be used, and there composted with manure, 

 as you have proposed. Or it may be drawn to 

 the barn-yards and sheds in the fall, and a coat- 

 ing of it spread over the bottom of those places, 

 say four to six inches thick, to catch the manure 

 droppings and leachings. Then at two or three 

 different times during the winter, muck may be 

 drawn to these places, and a thin coat, say three 

 or four inches thick, spread over them, thus from 

 time to time mingling the muck with the litter 

 and manure which there accumulate. In the 

 spring, two, three or four weeks previous to plant- 

 ing time, it would pay well to draw out these ac- 

 cumulations, if they are needed for use, to the 

 fields where they are wanted, and pile them in 

 heaps of twenty-five or more loads, at convenient 

 places for further distribution on the land, that 

 they may undergo a heating and pulverizing pro- 

 cess before being committed to the soil. This is 

 not absolutely necessary, but it would pay well 

 for the labor, as the compost could then be more 

 evenly spread and more perfectly mingled with 

 the soil. 



If convenient, make a water-tight trench be- 

 hind the cattle in the stables, say twenty to twen- 

 ty-four inches wide and four inches deep, and fill 

 it daily through the foddering season with dry 

 muck. You can use at least a bushel of muck 

 daily to each grown animal. If you have litter 

 for bedding, put that under the cattle too. The 

 contents of the trench, togelher with wet portions 

 of the litter, may be daily thrown into a cellar, or 

 under a deep shed open on the south side. The 

 north side of buildings is not a good place for 

 compost to be exposed. By this trench mode of 

 composting, you catch and hold every thing, li- 

 quid as well as solid, and the droppings falling 

 warm upon the muck, have an immediate action 

 upon it ; the compost being made day by day in 

 small quantities, becomes intimately mingled, and 

 makes superb manure for almost any j)urpose. 

 A warm and convenient place should be provided 

 to receive the muck for this mode of composting, 

 and it should be filled with dry muck. Some 

 persons, instead of using a trench, spread muck 

 under the cattle, and then cover it with litter, re- 

 peating the process daily, and they say they like 

 it well. Others, who have barn cellars, throw 

 the manure of the stables there, and at short in- 

 tervals spread muck over it. But if you practice 

 that way, see that your cellar is not too close, 

 damp and dark, for the compost needs suitable 

 atmosphei'ic influence to promote in it a whole- 

 some fermentation and decomposition. Deposit 

 your horse manure in a cellar or covered pen, fre- 

 quently throwing muck upon it, and let a few 

 swine work it over. You can thus preserve this 

 very active, volatile manure from injury by over- 

 heating or loss by evaporation, and make a very 

 effective compost. 



You can compost dry muck with unleached 

 ashes, using two to four bushels of ashes to a 

 common cart buck load of muck, mixing the pile 

 in thin layers at a time of each, and shovelling 



