410 TRANSACTIONS OF THE 



Field had made some useful remarks, one that could not be 

 talked about too much. The people need line upon line to 

 awaken them to the importance of swamp draining, and the use 

 of muck as a fertilizer. On the subject of salt meadows he said 

 that their influence in Massachusetts upon the farmers was any- 

 thing but beneficial. If they had never owned an acre of salt 

 meadow, they would be better off now. In some parts of that 

 state the farmers resort to such land for hay and sell all from the 

 upland; thus the farms are deteriorated. As to the use of muck 

 as a fertilizer, not one man in ten knows the value of salt or fresh 

 muck, or how to use it. It is a very common practice, but an 

 error, to carry muck direct from the swamj) to the upland, because 

 thence comes an almost irradicable lot of weeds and grasses. It 

 never should be applied to any land in its raw state. The value 

 of both salt and fresh swamp muck is but little known, and some 

 who have used it in its raw state have ever since condemned it, 

 because its sourness injured rather than improved the crop. He 

 composts it with oyster shell lime, and finds it of immense value 

 for all crops. He knew of one man who made a pile over a large 

 surface two or three feet deep, and composted it with lime 

 and stable manure, and then sowed it with herds-grass seed, 

 which yielded him from three to five tons an acre, which he 

 cut away from the pile for manure, for herd crops, and grass 

 land. 



Mr. Brown said it ought to be more generally knoAlvn that 

 muck is a perfect deodorizer. He never saw a vault so foul that 

 muck would not correct it. He buys all the dead animals he can 

 get and cuts them up and covers them over with muck, and thus 

 obtains a manure of the most valuable kind at a very small cost. 

 He finds great benefit to fruit trees from putting a wheelbarrow- 

 load of composted muck in the fall around the boles, and spread- 

 ing it abroad in the spring. Mr. Brown spoke of the great value 

 of muck in stable and barn cellars for manui-e -heaps. He thought 

 no good farmer would ever be without a supply. 



Mr. T. W. Field, of Brooklyn, said all that was wanted to make 

 swamps productive, was to relieve the surface of stagnant water. 

 The general use of muck as commonly applied has been deleterious, 

 and it is difiicult to induce men who have once made such a mis- 

 take to try again in a proper manner. But he finds nothing so 

 valuable to mix with guano or potash, or any other concentrated 

 manure, as decomposed muck. He supposes there is one- 

 thirteenth part of tliis State now lying idle as worthless swamp. 



