Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1872-02-05
2faricatlt,tral Department
I. D. e. COLLINS Editor.

VALUE AND Use OF MUcK.-A very IN
significant subject, many will say no
doubt, especially those who have never
used it as fertilizer; and not one farm
er in ten that has it on his own land
has ever usas it as manure. When |
look around me and see the untold wealth |
that lies in the thousands of swamps and
ponds of New York and New England,
and then look at the cultivated lands |
that produce less than half crop of
grain, when by the aid of the muck in
these swamps judiciously applied they
could be made to produce three or four
times as much, I feel just like going
out among the farmers on a lecturing tour
subject, Matck. But I have neither
the gift of CAB nor the time for this.
However, [ have talked much to my
neighbors until | have got quite num-
Der to using it with results satisfactory
to themselves, while others have the idea
that have got muck on the brain, some
having told me SO. Well, I admit it,
and also admit that it has been expen-
sive business for, like Uncle Johns
brains in farming, it has caused my barns
to expand to an alarming extent in these
DAYS of high priced lumber
commenced using muck sixteen years
ago, and have been increasing its use
ever since. My first experiment was a
failure. | have one meadow lying next
to the swamp where get the muck, which
is rather a cold soil and originally wet
but understanding has made it dry
enough to plough most seasons.
The first muck ever used [ threw out
in the fall, and in the spring drew and
spread on this meadow at the rate of
thirty loads to the acre, and it took that
land five years to get oyer it, and then [
had to plough it up and seed it over.
Not very encouraging, was it? But [
took Luther fuckers Albany Cuztivator
which kept harping on muck, until |
concluded to try again.
When | came to haying, the next
summer after applying the muck, I saw
that | had made a mistake, and that
such cold land needed warming manures.
And here let me say that | have since
applied muck composted in various forms
to this same piece, but never could see
that it was benefited by it in the least,
and now use my horse manure on this
piece, giving it dressing of lime &C.
casionally. The rest of my farm is eth
er slaty or gravelly: and the second
year [ tried some clear muck on five
acres of corn, or rather drew the muck
on the same fall after spreading the other
in the spring. drew on about the same
quantity to the acre, and let it lie until
spring, when it was spread and ploughed
under. One acre was MANFRED with barn
yard manure at about the same rate per
acre. and about one-half acre was not
MANFRED at all. There was very little
difference in the yield of the muck por-
ton and that not manured at all, while
the barn manure gave double any other
acre of the piece.
One-half of the farmers would have
stopped here, and said that muck was
/ good for nothing and confess that
felt the least bit discouraged, as the
meadow was worse this year than the
, first But the CalttUatOr said there was
value in muck, and was getting bitches
opened in my swamp by taking it out,
so there was something gained. I sowed
? the corn hills to oats the next spring
: and to rye in the fall, and seeded. That
year the muck began to tell, as the oat;
r were nearly as good as on the manure
f and far better than the half acre not ma
e nured, and the rye was fully as good OF
| the muck. When harvesting the oats
Y became convinced that there was virtue
Y in it; but how to get it out a little NOR.
| expeditiously was the question now.
/ resolved to try one more experiment
: so in the fall drew fifty loads into thu
barnyard covering it all over to tn,
depth of four or five inches; and as i
e was very dry when put there, it absorbed
: vast amount of the liquid manure
: and in the spring it was thorough.
: mixed with the manure, except tina
: from the stables which was thrown un
P der a shed. This was spread on corr
n land, side by side with the clear manure
5 and the crop from the compost was full.
a equal to the other. I think the manur
l. produced a little larger growth of stalk
Il and the compost a little the most grain
q [ have never tried composing muck wit
/ lime or ashes, having always applied
y clear or composted it with yard manure
IL [ now have a basement under tn
s. whole of my barn, affording suficien
/ room to stable twenty-five head of cattle
g Through the center is an alley four fee
n in width and four inches below the res
/ of the foor,-the floor of the whole be
d ing water tight. On each side of thi
- alley are the stalls just deep enough fo
m the cattle to stand upon and let the droI
er pings fall in the alley. In front of thes