(354 Transactions of ths Amerwan iNSTiTtTTE. 



liable to exceptions that will occur to the intelligent farmer, five pints 

 — that is, five pounds — of water should be added to one pound of the 

 oil of vitriol. In a few days the bones thus treated will be found 

 greatly softened, so as to crush under the stroke of a spade. The 

 superphosphate should be mixed with some other fertilizer, as dry 

 muck, and applied in small quantities not directly to the seed. 



Analysis of Muck, its Composition and Value. 



Several specimens of muck from various parts of the country, some 

 from Berlin Heights, Ohio, and a box full of it from John T. Stinson, 

 near Raleigh, North Carolina, have been received by the clul), and 

 referred to Jatnes A. Whitney, tlie chemist. The Ohio muck he has 

 carefully analyzed, and describes it in the following report : 



" One specimen was taken from near the surface of the deposit, 

 the other from a depth of two feet. The former was of a brown 

 color, coarse in texture, and mingled with pieces of broken wood and 

 fine roots. The other was of a much darker color, finer in composi- 

 tion, and contained liimps of decayed material, which fell to pieces 

 under light blows of the pestle. 



The first sample, that from near the surface, contained seven and a 

 fourth per cent of moisture, eighty-four and a half per cent of organic 

 matter, and only eight per cent of mineral matter. 



The sample taken from a depth of twenty-four inches, gave eight 

 per cent of moisture, seventy-two per cent of organic matter, and of 

 mineral matter twenty-one and one-fourth per cent, or about three 

 times as much as the first. The sample taken from the greater 

 depth was much more decomposed than the other, and this evidently 

 without the access of air. This had not only caused the relative 

 proportion of mineral matter, potash, silica, &c., to be much in excess 

 of the other, as above indicated, but had produced a change in the 

 structure and condition of the organic matter which would hasten 

 its decay buried in the soil. This would cause the evolution of car- 

 bonic acid to be more rapid, which would not only supply, in part, 

 the plants with carbon, but held in solution in water would assist the 

 disintegration and dissolving of minerjil particles in the soil. More- 

 over, this condition of organic matter would greatly increase its 

 power of absorbing and retaining ammonia. The j)eat, therefore, 

 taken from the greater depth, would be much better for manurial 

 purposes than the surface peat. Neither should be used without 

 admixture with other materials. That from the top of the ground 



