26 



craxeerry culture. 



pulverized or granulated, is alluvium, separated from the 

 drift by the waves and currents of the ocean, and eleva- 

 ted by the action of the waters. The deltas, or rich in- 

 terval lands near the outlets of rivers, are alhiviuin. and 

 are formed by the subsiding of the "hner particles brouo;ht 

 down by the streams. 



The mud found in the narrow bogs and creeks near the 

 sea shore, and the muck, or j^eat. underlyin:^ swamps and 

 fen-lnnds. are of the same character. 



Salt and fresh meadows, tormed partly by deposits of 

 m.ud. and partly Ijy decayed vegetable and animal mat- 

 ter, belong to the same cla-s. In fact, all alluvial forma- 

 tions are caused by the action of water. 



There are several varieties of muck, or peat, all of 

 which have a fertilizing effect upon the cra]iber!y vine. 

 Muck is composed almost entirely of decayed vegetable 

 matter, but deposits are fo imd in different stages of de- 

 composition : those most thoroughly decompC'Sed being 

 best adapted to our purp-se. Professor Sidney K. Smith, 

 of X. J., has analyzed a sample of muck, with the follow- 

 ing results : 



*• The muck is spread on a plate, and placed over a ves- 

 sel of boiling water — tr;is affords a means of maintaining 

 an equal temperature at '21*2' F. In this position it will 

 lose 50 per cent j.^) its weio:ht of water. If you will weigh 

 100 parts of the sample thus dried, and burn it. and then 

 weigh, yoti will have from 6 to 30 par:s of ashes : so that 

 from 70 to 94 per cent is -'irganic matter, which took the 

 gaseous or aeriform s:a:e as soon as hi eat enough was ap- 

 plied. 



'* Btit this difference in weight of ash comes chiefly 

 from the larger per cent of sand, or silicates, in some varie- 

 ties than in others : asihie from this, since the aniount of 

 the salts of potash, soda. lime. etc.. is small, compared with 

 the whole weight of the muck, it need not be reckoned. 

 It is, theD^ the volatile or organic part that contains 



