FERTILIZERS AND MANURES. 



61 



with the lime and salt mixture, and if kept in a damp 

 state and turned over once or twice, they form the best 

 manure known for all kinds of trees and shrubs, and 

 indeed afford all the necessary constituents, organic and 

 inorganic, of all cultivated plants. 



Swamp Muck is another valuable absorbent. Gather 

 the black earth of swamps, place in piles and let it dry 

 out the superfluous moisture, and haul it to the compost 

 heap or yard. Swamp muck, by its elasticity, keeps the 

 soil light and open, and is excellent both for absorbing 

 and retaining moisture therein. It may be reduced with 

 ashes or lime, either of which will destroy all its naturally 

 acid properties. The salt and lime mixture is the best 

 and usually the cheapest for this purpose, but leached 

 ashes mixed with carbonaceous matter have an additional 

 part of their potash rendered soluble and available for 

 plants, and should be used thus where obtainable. 



The Lime and Salt Mixture is thus prepared: Take 

 three bushels of unslaked lime, dissolve a bushel of salt 

 in as little water as possible, and slake the lime there- 

 with. If the lime will not take up all the brine at once 

 (which it will if good and fresh burned), add a little more 

 of the brine daily, turning and adding until all is taken 

 up. Keep it under cover until wanted for use. Of itself it 

 supplies plants with chlorine, lime and soda, and acts like 

 lime or ashes in reducing stubborn vegetable matters and 

 correcting their acid properties. 



With a load of swamp earth, mix a bushel and a half 

 of the lime and salt mixture intimately while it is in a 

 moderately moist state, and in thirty days it will be 

 decomposed. Upon a layer of this earth six inches thick, 

 spread a coat of fresh stable manure, each day covering it 

 with ten times its quantity of prepared muck, which will 

 absorb all the gases and salts. Let the pile accumulate 

 until four feet high, and then turn it all over, mix it again, 



