432 TRANSACTIONS OF THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE. 



your phosphate in the ground in 1861, and in 1870, unless used in 

 the interim by plants, it will be there waiting for you. 

 Adjourned. 



April 22, 1861. 

 Prof. Nash in the chair. 



RIVER DEPOSITS FOR MANURE. 



Mr. Lawton said that, in a conversation with Mr. Thaddeus 

 Davids, of New Rochelle, that gentleman had spoken to him in 

 reference to the use of creek mud as a manure. Eight years ago, 

 he had manured a part of a meadow with this mud, and a part 

 .with the best horse manure. The best part of his crop in the 

 spring — the manure having been applied in the fall — was that 

 manured by the creek mud. He has never applied any top dress- 

 ing or any other manure to the place since ; and the crops there 

 are very fine. It is a heavy, loamy soil — the clay soil of West- 

 chester county. Mr. Davids was delighted with the effect of the 

 salt-water mud on his land, and thinks we have an inexhaustible 

 supply of rich manure in our creeks. 



Prof. Mapes. — It would be interesting to know whether there 

 were any factories on that creek. The sediment of many creeks 

 is of high value, while in others it has no value whatever, except, 

 perhaps, in its use as mulch. The river mud in the marshes of 

 New Jersey forms an admirable manure for potatoes. But a gen- 

 eral recommendation of creek mud could hardly be sustained. 

 Laid on land as mulch, the mud would give a later fall and ear- 

 lier spring — keep the sun from having action on the soil when it 

 is not required, and, being porous and loose, is always receiving 

 gases from the atmosphere. But it could not be taken as a gene- 

 ral recipe that creek mud was valuable. 



Mr. Carpenter inquired if much did not depend on the kind of 

 soil on which this creek mud was applied. 



Prof. Mapes. — It is not beneficial to all soils alike, certainly. 

 On soils deficient in organic matter, it was useful for mechanical 

 purposes, such as he had stated. At deltas of rivers, or in 

 marshes or creeks, the deposit is excellent manure, but it is not 

 the mud, but the bark, leaves and other vegetable matter that 

 has washed there, through all time, which made it valuable. Its 

 value consists in the fact that it contains those things which go 



