The “great manure question” is yet up for discus¬ 
sion, and probably will not he finally settled for some 
time to come. Our present purpose, however, is not to 
attempt original views, but to speak first of composted 
manures, and then offer some remarks on the various 
forms of compost into which muck may profitably enter. 
The question of composts we find thus stated in sub¬ 
stance by a contemporary :—It is generally admitted 
that the nitrogen of yard manures is their most valua¬ 
ble constituent. Chemists tell us that plants take their 
nitrogen in the form of ammonia, and that ammonia is 
a product of fermentation. If, then, ammonia pos¬ 
sesses this great value, is it not obvious that the manure 
should pass through the process by which ammonia is 
produced? The decay of ordinary yard manure, as 
ordinarily mixed with the soil, is not by fermentation, 
but by a slow and gradual decomposition, termed era- 
macausis. What is wanted is not a high degree of fer¬ 
mentation, but that degree of heat which is sufficient 
to soften and break down fibrous matter without consu¬ 
ming it. 
The object of composting then is to get rotten ma¬ 
nure, or to cause to begin, at least, the process of de¬ 
cay. “ The farmer will always adopt the safest course,” 
says Stockhardt, “ who suffers his manure not to pu- 
trify, but simply to commence this process upon the 
muck heap. According to the opinion of practical men, 
this period has set in when the straw assumes a some¬ 
what brownish color, and has become so tender as to be 
torn readily by the fork in loading. Theory may be 
represented as agreeing with this decision.” 
Of the importance of composting, a farmer of large 
practical experience, John Johnston of Geneva, re¬ 
cently remarked:—“Manure, m my opinion, must be 
fermented to make it valuable for the first crop. Take 
fresh manure from the yard, and apply it to spring 
crops, and with me it does no good with that crop. One 
thing I firmly believe—that manure requires (heaping 
from or in the yard, and) a good, deal of rain after it 
is heaped, and turning beside; it also requires age to 
make it most efficient on my land ” 
The best method of composting animal manures re¬ 
quires the use of absorbents, and in common practice, 
straw is the material employed. But sufficient straw 
cannot always be had, and if it could, there are better 
substances which may be used. With manure alone, 
too great a degree of heat is evolved from too rapid 
fermentation—a heat and fermentation which can be 
made very useful in converting other substances into 
valuable manure. By mingling these substances with 
fermenting manure, the amount of fertilizing material 
is largely increased—an object of much importance to 
the farmer. 
One valuable, but too often overlooked, absorbent, is 
swamp muck or peat. Let us look at its character and 
uses in a manurial point of view, practically and chemi¬ 
cally. 
Of what is muck composed? Of decayed vegetables 
—mosses, grass, leaves, and woody matter, pretty tho¬ 
roughly decomposed. “Peat,” says Dana’s Muck 
Manual , “ is the result of that spontaneous change in 
vegetable matter, which ends in geine ”—a term which, 
“ in an agricultural cense, includes all the decomposed 
organic matter in the soil. It is highly concentrated 
vegetable food, not only partly cooked but seasoned.” 
Dr. C. T. Jackson, from an analysis of twenty samples 
of peat from different localities in Rhode Island, ob¬ 
tained an average of 72 parts of geine and 24 of salts 
and silicates, in 109 parts—dried at 309°. Muck, even 
when allowed to drain all it will, still contains more 
than three-fourths its weight of water. 
Dana makes the follwing comparison of a cord of 
muck with a cord of fresh cow dung:— 
Weight. Soluble geine. Insol. geine. Salts of lime. 
Dung,... 
9,289 
128 
1,248 
92 
Muck (1.) 
9,216 
376 
673* 
91 
do. (2) 
9,216 
319 
529 
81 
“ The power of producing alkaline action on the in¬ 
soluble geine,” he adds, “is alone wanting to make 
peat as good as cow dung. Reviewing the various mat¬ 
ters, from whatever source derived, solid or liquid, 
which are used as manure, all possess one common 
property, that of generating ammonia. The conclu¬ 
sion, then, of the whole matter, is this: the value of 
all manures depends on salts, geine, and ammonia, and 
it is directly in proportion to the last; it follows that 
any substances affording these elements may be sub¬ 
stituted for manure.” 
•r 
Muck, then, only needs some addition to make it 
capable of generating ammonia, to give it great value. 
“It is only necessary,” says Prof. Johnston, “to mix 
half-dried peat with any substance which undergoes 
rapid spontaneous decomposition,—when it will more 
or less speedily become infected with the same tenden¬ 
cy to decay, and will thus be rendered capable of min¬ 
istering to the growth of cultivated plants. ,r Any 
alkali, as ashes, or any fermenting manure, animal or 
vegetable, will produce ammonia from the decomposi¬ 
tion of the nitrogen which muck always contains. 
Many processes, some of which will form the subjects 
of future articles, have been successfully employed for 
the conversion of muck into active manure—and all 
depend upon the principles hinted at in the above re¬ 
marks. 
--O- • ♦- 
On Making Composts. 
Messrs. Tucker & Son —I often see accounts of ex¬ 
periments of composts by mixing wood ashes with hen 
manure, guano, barn-yard manure, and other manures 
containing ammonia. Now experience has proved to 
me that the practice is a bad one, and I would corrob¬ 
orate the testimony of Mr. L. Bartlett, in the Co. 
Gent, of May 13-. I have been in the practice of mix¬ 
ing ashes with manures, hut a little incident in my 
farming operations, gave overwhelming evidence that 
the practice was wrong ; therefore I have discarded it 
entirely. Here is the history of it : I told my Irish¬ 
man to draw a pail of urine from a barrel containing 
it—(all the urine I can save is either put in a bar¬ 
rel or distributed over a compost heap of muck, and it 
is the best manure I have)—and put it on the ashes in 
the ash-house and mix them together. He did so, and 
commenced shoveling over the ashes, but soon halloed 
out, “ Fath , I can’t stay here.” Why, says 1 1 Says 
he, “ my mouth is full, my nose is full,, and my eyes 
are full.” I went to him, and sure enough the ash-house 
was filled with the ammonia or hartshorn. He left the 
ash-house in double quick time, and I have never or¬ 
dered any urine to be mixed with ashes since. I have 
come to the conclusion that the union of alkalies with , 
ammonia is a wasteful practice, for the ammonia is re- rt 
leased, and floats away in the atmosphere. James \ 
Childs. Deerfield , Mass. v. 
