FES. M 
M02 
THE BUBAL HEW-Y©RKEB. 
brought to the bog in carts or sleds from hills 
or pits, in case that plan should happen to be 
convenient. But upon the great level moors 
of Europe, where the process originated, there 
was no alternative but to get the gravel from 
beneath the moor-earth, ft happened, withal, 
that the excavations made for gravel could 
readily be.put to use as ditches to drain the 
land. 
As explained by Kim pan, to whom the origi¬ 
nal description^! the processes is commonly 
accredited, there are two general methods of 
lifting the gravel, one of them applicable to 
cases where the beds of humus are deep, and 
the other to the case of shallow beds. Where 
the layer of black earth is from a foot-and-a- 
half to three feet thick, or more, the operations 
consist in digging large, deep ditches, at stated 
intervals, and spreading upon the surface of 
the moor the sandy or gravelly subsoil which 
is taken from the bottoms of the ditches. lu 
Rirnpau’s practice, the ditches are dug at dis¬ 
tances of about 75 feet, one from another; 
they are 111 faet wide at the top, 11 feet wide 
at the bottom, and four or five feet deep. The 
black earth from tbe ditch, is spread upon the 
surface of the moor, and then the sand or 
gravel or clay taken from the bottom of the 
ditch is spread, in its turn, so that a layer of 
it about four inches thick shall everywhere 
cover the moor-earth. A gravelly saud is held 
to be best; and, in general, tbe more gravelly 
the material is, the better, though it is well to 
have a small proportion of clay in it. Pure, 
fine-grained quartz sand does not answer near¬ 
ly so good a purpose as gravel. Oats may be 
sown at once upon the gravel and afterwaids 
potatoes, roots, grain, and all kinds of forage 
crops. 
The gravel layer is left permanently upon 
the surface of the land. It is never plowed 
under or mixed with the moor-earth. But 
from time to lime when tbe surface land be¬ 
comes hard or euerusted it is worked with a 
subsoil plow' in such wise that tbe soil may 
be lposencd without mixing one layer of it with 
another. It is well, however, in preparing the 
field, at the beginning, to plow a little of the 
sand or gravel into tbe upper layer of black 
earth so that there may be good capillary con¬ 
nection between tbe moor-earth and the dual 
layer of gravel. Some writers have argued, 
also, that it is well to sweeten the moor some¬ 
what, by burning, before proceeding to spread 
the gravel upon it. The objection to fine sand, 
just mentioned, is not only that it is liable to 
be blown aw r ay by the wind, but that it dries 
out too rapidly and. chills off loo quickly by 
night. Indeed, one advantage of tbe rnelhod 
is that the gravel layer compresses the drained 
moor-earth which would be apt to become too 
light and dry if it were cultivated in the ordi¬ 
nary way and exposed directly to sun and 
wind. Another objection to pure sand is that 
its particles lie too close together, so that a 
thick layer of it would, when moist, hinder the 
proper access of air to the humus. 
It is still an open question, perhaps, whether 
this burying process is the most economical 
method of reclaiming moor-land, but there is 
00 longer any room for doubt that it is a met h- 
®d of very great merit. It has been found 
in practice that tbe effects of the reclamation 
are sure and lasting, and that better crops can 
be got from tbe moors in this way than by any 
other known process. 
Tbe most interesting feature of this system 
of husbandry is tbe readiness with which crops 
get their nitrogenous food from the buried 
humus. Analysis of plants grown on the gravel 
layer has shown, all along, that the crops taken 
from moor land thus reclaimed are particular¬ 
ly rich in nitrogen; and after some years' ex¬ 
perience it began to be noticed by tbe farmers 
that grain crops are apt to lodge badly on 
reclaimed fields that are eight or ten years old. 
On critical examination it appears that the 
trouble is due to tbe extreme fertility of tbe 
soil, which had not been properly appreciated. 
In the beginning, Rimpau’s practice was to 
manure the gravel layer, much iu the same 
way that, tife would have manured an upland 
field. But it appears that in so doing he made 
a grave mistake, for by using stable manure 
ho got too much humus audtoo much nitrogen 
into the gravel layer. Osswald's examinations 
of the soil from reclaimed fields of various 
ages, from two to twelve years, have shown 
that the gravel of the older fields had become 
very much charged with organic matter. Not 
that the gravel had become mixed with moor- 
earth from below ; on the contrary, the line of 
demarkation between tbe moor-earth and the 
gravel was surprisingly sharp, considering that 
twelve years had elapsed, iu some instances, 
since the gravel was spread, and that arable 
crops had been grown upon the laud continu¬ 
ally. The only trouble was that the continued 
application of stable manure, and the accumu¬ 
lation of plant-roots, through injudicious 
shifts in the rotation of crops, had led to au 
accumulation of humus in the gravel. No very 
great quantity of nitrates was detected in these 
old fields. But there was au abundance of 
ammonia; and it was plain that there was 
present in the soil a far larger quantity of 
active nitrogenous manure than there was any 
need of; or, indeed, than was good for some 
kinds of crops, a 6 the lodging had already 
shown. 
Instead of being exhausted by cropping, the 
reclaimed fields had actually become too fer¬ 
tile. They were no longer competent to grow 
so great a variety of crops, at any given mo¬ 
ment, as they had been at first; they still did 
very well for grass, however. Some of the 
twelve-year-old fields yielded tbe best crops 
of ray-grass, cut over and over again for green 
fodder, they had ever given ; though they had 
previously' been well manured with dung, with 
superphosphate, bone-meal, and Stas 6 furt pot¬ 
ash-salts. 
Speaking in general terms, the continued 
use of dung upon these fields was a great error. 
Here, assuredly, if anywhere, the exclusive use 
of mineral fertilizers will be in order. Here, 
if anywhere, the farmer may put his trust 
almost exclusively in the great store of nitro¬ 
gen which the humus can supply. It has, 
indeed, been found best, in practice, to use a 
little nitrate of soda, in conjunction with the 
mineral manures, at tbe beginning of the pro¬ 
cess of reclamation, before the moor-earth has 
fairly begun to decompose. But there is little 
or no need of this uitrogenous adjunct subse¬ 
quently, since the mere oxidation and decay' 
of the humus supply enough nitrogen for the 
support of most kinds of crops. 
It remains to be seen whether after very 
loug-continued cultivation tbe accumulation of 
humus in (be gravel layer will be large enough 
to preclude the growing of grain crops, or to 
necessitate, the laying-down of another gravel 
layer, at enormous expense. But for the pres¬ 
ent it is plain that pains must be taken to work 
against tbe accumulation of humus, both by 
avoiding tbe use of organic manures and by 
growing a proper pioportion of exhaustive 
crops, fit to bring down the exuberant fertility 
and to promote tbe destruction of the uu- 
wished-for humus. 
The other method of lifting gravel, alluded 
to at tbe beginning of this article, is with plows. 
It is used upon moors which have only a thin 
layer of black earth. When the moor-earth is 
no thicker than from eight to sixteen inches, 
Rimpaxt gets his top layer of gravel or sand by 
throwing uu the subsoil from below by a sys¬ 
tem of trench plowing. He runs three plows, 
specially adapted to the purpose, oue after the 
other. The first plow turns a fiat slice, three 
inehes or so deep; the second plow stirs the 
sole of the first furrow to a depth of 12 or 1G 
iuches; aud the third plow throws up at least 
six inches of the loosened subsoil, [nx-over the 
inverted sod. These plowing operations are 
carried on in summer and autumn. Next 
spring the furrows are leveled with a heavy 
harrow, and oats are sown. As was said be¬ 
fore, it is to be understood that tbe moor mu 6 t 
be well drained before it cau be cultivated in 
this manner. 
Jarra (feonomi). 
A MUCK BED —WILL IT PAY TO HAUL 
IT OUT FOR MANURE 1 
J. B., Union. N. T., having a large muck- 
bed, asks which is likely to be the more profit¬ 
able—to haul it out on his laud or to invest 
the time and money this would cost in super¬ 
phosphate or some other fertilizer. He cau 
buy yard manure for one dollar a load mile 
away; it is coarse, however, and contains a 
great deal of unrotted straw. He inquires 
whether Dana’s Muck Manual is 3 trustworthy 
guide on the muck question. He cuts out the 
muck or peat at present in August, allows it 
to dry and uses it as fuel, for which purpose it 
lasts as long as well-seasoned hard wood, and 
makes a much hotter fire. It makes a large 
amount of ashes, but they are lighter than 
dust, and be asks whether these ashes are any¬ 
where nearly as good as wood ashes for fertil¬ 
izing purposes. 
Answer by Prof. G. C. Caldwell. 
Two objects are generally supposed to 
be accomplished by tbe use of stable man¬ 
ure, viz., feeding the plant with nitrogen, pot¬ 
ash and phosphoric acid, and, secondly, the 
improvement of the physical qualities of the 
soil by keeping up or perhaps even increasing 
the quantity of humus, or decaying remains of 
plants. This humus, mixed in with the clay 
of a heavy soil, makes it lighter, or with a too 
sandy soil gives it body, and makes it less 
leaehy and hungry, so that manures do not 
run through it like water through a strainer; 
and there are good reasons for the belief that 
humus serves other useful purposes besides 
this. Now, if muck is to replace stable manure 
it should contaiu the same substances and in 
aboutthe sarnie proportions; but in attempting 
to compare tbe two materials as to the quan¬ 
tity of nitrogen, phosphoric acid and potash 
that they coutain, we are met at the outset by 
a serious difficulty in the great variability in 
the composition of the former. Prof. John¬ 
son, iu analysing 33 samples of air-dried 
muck, found the nitrogen to vary from nearly 
five pounds to 29 pounds in 1,000, or an average 
of 15 pounds. Stable manure in its ordinary 
conditionals spread on the field,contains about 
pounds of nitrogen in 1,000 There;ore, as 
far as mere quantity of nitrogen is concerned, 
we shall be likely to have m a load of swamp 
muck of fair quality, which has been exposed 
to tbe air for a considerable time till its Bur- 
phis water is dried out, more, and perhaps a 
good deal more, nitrogen than in a load of 
stable manure. 
But the same quantity of nitrogen in one 
case may not make as much of a crop as in 
the other; a small part of tbe nitrogen iu stable 
manure is all ready for tbe use of the plant, 
while a larger part, before it can serve as food, 
has to undergo a change in respect to its forms 
of combination, which requires time. In muck 
a part of tbe nitrogen may be, as 111 stable 
manure, ready for the plant, bat, on the other 
hand, pretty much all ot it may happen to be 
iu this inert aud, for the present, useless con¬ 
dition. As to phosphoric acid and potash, the 
other two substances which are fed to plants 
in stable manure, muck is usually so poor in 
them as compared with the manure that they 
may well be left out of account. This view of 
the case is supported by the results of some 
experiments by Prof Johnson, which showed 
that by simply adding wood ashes, containing 
much phosphoric acid aud potash, to muck, 
eight times as much plant growth was ob¬ 
tained as with pure muck. As to tbe quantity 
of humus-forming material in muck, that also 
varies widely ; nine-tenths of it may be com¬ 
bustible matter, cipable of making humus,and 
generally over one-half of it is of this charac¬ 
ter: but where it contains a large proportion 
of sand, not over a fourth of it may be com¬ 
bustible : it contains the more humus-forming 
material the smaller tbe quantity of ash that it 
leaves when burned. Ordinary stable manure 
contains about one fifth of its weight of com¬ 
bustible matter; therefore, well air-dried muck 
may make more humus in the soil than an 
equal weight of stable uiauure, with its much 
larger proportion of water. 
It is plain th.R, without making a chemical 
analysis of the muck which our inquiring friend 
has iu such abundance, we cannot give him 
any reliable advice as to its use. He may have, 
a mine of considerable value in his swamp, or, 
on the other hand, it may not pay to dig it out 
and carry it even to the nearest field. That it 
may be valuable is shown by tbe results of 
many trials recorded in Johnson’s “ Peat aud 
its Uses,” which, by the way, we recommend 
to our friend rather than Dana’s Muck Man¬ 
ual. It is there stated that some farmers have 
compared the muck obtained from tbeir own 
swamps with their stable manure, and have 
found it to be capable of yielding quite as large 
crops, at least for a time. Iu these cases the 
muck was applied by itself, aud sometimes 
almost in the fresh state. Sneti a favorable 
result could, however, be expected only with 
a muck of unusually good quality, and a kind 
of soil that needed just such treatment—per¬ 
haps a heavy soil, naturally well stocked with 
potash aud phosphoric acid, aud specially 
neediug the loosening effects of the muck. In 
other and more common cases the best results 
have been obtained by composting tbe muck 
with tbe manure of tbe yard, thus using it as 
au absorbent of tbe valuable liquids which 
might otherwise run to waste, and as a check 
on losses which might result from too rapid 
rotting of the manure. We find in the book 
above mentioned such reports as these: “A 
compost of equal parts of muck and stable 
manure is equal to tbe same quautity of un¬ 
mixed stable manure;” or, “Eight loads of 
muck aud four of manure in compost, when 
properly forked over, are equal to twelveloads 
of barnyard manure;” or, ** One load of stable 
manure and three loads of muck equal in value 
four loads of good manure,” Such statements 
made by meu who are well known in their re¬ 
spective localities, and whose names are given 
with them, are worthy of careful considera¬ 
tion. 
Our friend may therefore really possess a 
valuable piece of property in his muck bed; 
the chemist might help him to decide how 
valuable it is; but we would not by any 
means advise him to call in the services of the 
chemist, for it would cost too much; nor can 
we show him how to make even a reliable 
guess as to the quality of his muck from its 
appearance, whether snuff-colored or black, 
fine or coarse, or what not; Prof. Johnson could 
not flud anything in the appearance of the muck 
that could be taken as a sure indication of good 
quality. There is, then, nothing for him to 
do but to try it on his fields, and we advise 
him by all means to do this, but iu such a way 
that he can tell whether it pays or not; if it 
does not pay he cannot afford to be handling 
the heavy stuff year after year. He might 
try some of it by itself on one of bis fields, 
but not with much expectation of profit; he 
should also try it in his yard, hauling in, if 
the beds are not too far off, perhaps as many 
loads as be expects to have of manure. This 
cau often be done iu winter when his team and 
himself would otherwise be idle many days, and 
the experiment would cost him comparatively 
little. Then if he is an experienced farmer 
and knows about what to expect from a load 
of good stable manure when put on the land, 
he can soon tell whether or not the addition of 
his muck to it 1 b profitable. If he does not 
know from experience what return bis yard 
manure should give him.be ought by all means 
to go to work at once and get a reliable 
answer to this question, and especially be¬ 
fore he invests in superphosphate or auy other 
commercial fertilizers. Fortified with this 
information he may the more confidently 
strike out into new paths, with the feeliug 
that he is in far less danger of losing his hard- 
earned gains by unprofitable investments iu 
this direction. Positively, in no better way 
than this can he learn whether his muck is 
of any value to him, and we insist that its 
possible value is great enough to make a 
careful trial of it well worthwhile. In using 
it we would suggest that exposure to the 
air and to frosts always improves it, and that 
it is well therefore to dig it out some con¬ 
siderable time before it is wanted. 
As to the use of peat for fuel, he will find a 
full account of this matter in the book above 
referred to. In regard to peat ashes, they also 
are exceedingly variable in composition, but 
at tbeir best they are much poorer than wood 
ashes in potash—the most valuable constitu¬ 
ent of these ashes. They are, however, on the 
average, about as rich as wood ashes in phos¬ 
phoric acid, so that they are not by any means 
worthless, and in the compost pile of muck 
and manure they serve a good purpose as far 
as they go. They will be likely to be tbe bet¬ 
ter in quality, the smaller the quantity yielded 
py a given quantity of the peat. 
ijortirataral. 
FRUIT GROWERS IN COUNCIL. 
Twenty-Fifth Annual Meeting of the Western 
New York Horticultural Society. 
[Rural Special Report.] 
The twenty-fifth annual meeting of the 
Western New York Horticultural Sociely was 
held in the City Ilall, Rochester, commencing 
January 2Stb,and coutiuuing two days. It was 
largely attended, and the proceedings were of 
great interest. The exhibition of fruit was 
large aud the specimens were flue. 
The morniug of the first day was devoted to 
the routine business of organizing, appointing 
committees and heariug the report of the 
Treasurer. 
The afternoon session was opened by the 
address of the President, Mr, Barry, followed 
by the report of tbe Committee upon Native 
Fruits, Mr. J. J. Thomas, Chairman. He men¬ 
tioned the fact that in Monroe County the 
Swaar.Yellow Bellettower, Pound Sweet, Gloria 
Mundi aud Black Detroit Lad been found to be 
regular yearly bearers. He found the Brighton 
Grape to be a superb fruit for the gardener, 
aud recommended tbe Jones’s Seedling pear, 
both for market and home use. It is a most 
delicious fruit, being uniformly good and pro¬ 
ductive. 
Following this, Mr. Joues read the report 
of tbe Committee upon Ornithology, iu which 
he noted the shy habits of many birds, which 
render a study of their habits a difficult task. 
He had known of the canker-worm being de¬ 
stroyed by the cuckoo, and the pea-vine bugs 
to be the food of the barn Bwallow. The 
butcher-bird, he thought, did good service in 
ridding our fields of tbe mice. Mr. Green said 
that the thrush destroyed many insects service¬ 
able in the garden. Mr. Fowler thought the 
wood-peckers did great service iu the winter by 
riddiug our tree6 of the pupae of many injuri¬ 
ous insects. Mr. Hubbard, of Erie, bad known 
the English sparrow to eat tbe fruit buds of 
tbe Cun ant, and to destroy the crop. Mr. 
Harrison said the sparrow was a grain-eating 
bird. Mr. Woodward said he had Been the 
sparrows searching for insects, and would not 
destroy them until he could prove something 
against them. We have grain enough !u this 
country to feed both birds and men. 
Next came tbe reports of tbe Committee 
upon Visiting Orchards. Mr. Moody, of 
Niagara County, made a few remarks upon 
the fruit iu that county the past year, which 
was not a favorable one, the orchards near 
the lake 6hore not doing so well as those in¬ 
land, on account of the severe storms early in 
the season, which destroyed many blooms. 
He mentioned an orchard of six acres on 
heavy land, from which 2,100 barrels of apples 
were taken. 
Mr. Hoag gave the statistics of tbe amount of 
fruit grown and sold in the county : Of apples 
there were 300.000 barrels, at $1.00 per bbl.; 
dried apples, 130,000 bushels, at 20e. per bush.; 
apples used for cider, 200.000 bushels, at 10c. 
per bush.; peaches, 250,000 bushels, at 40e. per 
bush.; cherries, 458,000 pounds, at 3c. per lb,; 
pears, quinces, plums aud berries sold for 
$25,000, making a total of $062,740, for the 
total fruit crop of the county. Mr, Gray, of 
Orleans County, thought farmers made a mis- 
