The weekly standard., 1869-10-20
HOUSE AND FARM.

HOUSE AND FARM.
VALUE OF Muck As a MANURE. Volume
upon volume has been written, first and last
exemplifying tine excellence of muck as
manure, yet there is noticeable a culpable
and unaccountable degree of remissness on
the part of most farmers in relation to this
subject. There are few farmers in the
country whose means of providing aliment
TOR their crops are commensurate with their
wants; yet while this is confessedly the case,
and while these very individuals are lamen-
ting the immitigable rigor of the necessities
of which they are forced to complain, we
shall find that a little energy will enable
hem to overcome the evil, and to supply
ahment for their field and crops to almost
sny extent While they are annually tilling
fields rapidly becoming more sterile and un-
productive, and draining their purses by
the purchase of excrement from the stables
and stuccories of their neighbors, their muck
beds, teeming with the richest treasures. are
entirely neglected and overlooked: no eff
fort is made to render their wealth availa-
BILE, and they are suffered to remain undis-
turbed as though the contents were utter
" devoid of value. Still it is fair TO pre-
sumo that few are entirely ignorant of the
high value of muck as a manure. The most
superficial examination will speedy convince
any discriminating mind that muck, in most
of its modified forms, is IA substance replete
with the elements of fertility, and that its
application to the soil as stimulant of veg
etable life, is of high manurial value. The
labor of carting, composing and applying it,
as itmay be performed during seasons of com
parative leisure, and when there is little
else to- engross attention, is mere trife.
The most valuable article of muck is gene
rally that from swamps and natural basins
where it has been accumulated for perhaps
hundreds of centuries s-for the language of
geology assigns to the earth an origin much
more remote than that taught in the book
of Genesis-and when the deposit has in
creased gradually from the slow decay of
vegetable and other organic matter which
have found their way or been borne into
them by the currents of water and other eau
ses. These basins were once filled with
water, constituting ponds and bogs, often of
large extent As these WeIe sustained by
the streams and rills from neighbnring sour
ces, and the supply was constant, the decay
was gradual and wholly submarine, fact
which satisfactorially explains the cause OF
the peculiar sourness or rancidity OF muck
when first take from the beds, and which
renders it in its fresh condition less bene-
fit than an injury to plants. To correct this
it is requisite that it should be taken from
the bed in the fall and exposed to the ac-
ton of the frost and air. or mixed with fresh
80 Sc oh Of ne
acidity and render it highly salutary as a
timulant to vegetable life.
One of the most valuable compounds l
have ever applied to my soil was made by
mixing the following materials, and in the
severa! proportions indicated: Muck, fifty
. bushels lime, five bushels, Jun acked) /;
gypsum, three bushels; salt, one bushel.
The muck was taken directly from the
swamp, and the mixing proceeded as rapid
ly as it could be accomplished, the entire
mass being frequently turned to effect per-
feet incorporation Of the ingredients, con-
sideration never TO be overlooked in COM
pounding manures, especially when it is to
be Immediately applied.
For corn and wheat this compost is in
. valuable; it cxeIts its energies ut once, and
continues to act with healthful vigor for a
much longer period than animal excite
ment. | have made 10 estimate of the
cost of this article, though it may be easily
ascertained, as all the articles With the ex-
ception of the muck lave an ascertained
value.
For gardens 7 caasi.... it one of the most
thcient and &C, noHicaI stimulants that can
be applied. 1t is iiHr, possesses great alb
sorbent and nutritive powers, and conse-
guently contracts the effects of drought, an
evil to which all soils are liable In several
experiments instituted with a view to ascer-
tain the relative value of this compost and
guano and poudrette, the results in favor Of
the former. They were such, indeed, in
every case, as to induce most favorable
opinion of its efficiency on every variety of
crop to which have seen it applied.
ABOUT DRILLING WHEAT.-A correspon-
dent of the Journal Of agriculture, in discus
Ing the subject of drilling and cross drill
ing, (the latter practiced to some extent in
Southern Illinris) concludes as follows:
Inever could hear of sensible reason in
iaTor of cross-drilling Besides being Il la
nentable loss of time and labor, it is posi-
tive injury as | have shown. 1t cannot be
argued that it is necessary to cross drill in
1rter to get the grain thick enough. lfthe
lrlll is set to distribute the same amount of
grain by single drilling that you put per
acre by drilling both ways, why will it nor
be sufficient! and that too by going over
tue ground hut once. Then your grain will
'and in rows and the roots will spread lat
Fry and you need have no fear of their not
occupying all the ground. The wheat will
ave better opportunity to stool out in the
$pring, and the heads will fill better by not
eing too CT divided. The right way to sow
Eheat al times, is to put it in just as you
Pope it maRstand at harvest time. One of
y neighlte ) said, g always sow a peck
Pore per s,b; than l expect 10 have stand
bon the tnSund, for some of it will not
Rne up heriy, if it is good seed and is put
,igkt Aief nd some of it will winter-kill,
sIhT-Sa and another, so that by the
Comes to blossom, there will not be
30 much" But suppose it does come and
ont winter-kill? Then you have the ad
tional disaster of its being too thick,
hich IS a much greater calamity than some
iobt suppose One of the most successful
heat growers in the known world, Mr.. j.
Mechi. of Tip,ree, England, says: That
thick sowing Of grain is a great nation.
calamity that more crops fail to yield
Iii from too much seed sown, than from
little manure; and adds, that Liebig
stly says, that tie greatest enemy to a
,eat plant is another wheat plnnt, for the
nv obvious reason that both require the
me food; small heads and kernels, and
ak fabby straw are the natural conse-
ences Of this competition. For several
ars I tried one busIei of wheat per acre
+ainst two bushels drilled. The difference
favor of one bushel amounted TO seven
liars ard fifty cents per acre" Thus it
II he seen that the question, how little
,eot shall be sown, is quite as important
The question how much Another mat
n he lightly consider is the quality OF
seed. We'll matured plump, full grains
!, ,,ot shrivel. d kernels that will bring
~ -, constitutional plant, and certainly not
an an should be planted. Spend as much
ea', "a ,s YOU can afford in preparing the
nc end a for planting, but none in the unpar,
ouI unbIe folly of cross-drilling.