Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1877-03-14

READ BEFORE THE VERMONT STATE BOAT

READ BEFORE THE VERMONT STATE BOARD
OF AGRICULTURE AT WOODSTOCK, FEB.
9rH, 1877. BY BYRON p. RUGGLEs OF
HARTLAND.
MIR. CHAIRMAN: ALI those who expect
II scientific treatise on this subject will be
disappointed, for l only proposet to tell you
something of my experience in the use of
muck My muck swamp is about two
acres in extent; the hard dry ground
comes down close to the swamp, and the
muck is from two to three feet deep at the
edge of the swamp, to seven feet deep in
the middle.
Under the muck there is mari; and by
running down II pole, l judge there is
more mari in the swamp than muck At
the top of the mari there is an immense
number of shells of various kinds; from
which fact the swamp has long been known
in the vicinity, as Snail Swamp; and is so
designated on the map of Hartland villages,
in the Atlas Map of Windsor County. l
commenced digging near the edge, where
the muck was two and u half feet deep;
and in five years have dug over u flat for
ty feet by sixty, running out into the
swamp where the muck is four feet deep
| have gone pretty uniformly four feet
deep, taking out more or less mari. |
have drained the swamp to the depth of
two and half feet, and use a pump when
digging deeper than that have not been
obliged to work the pump more than one
hour per day In taking out sixteen cords
of muck last summer, did not pump
more than half an hour in all. The upper
part of the muck appears like decayed
wood, weeds, and grasses. The lower
part is of finer quality, evidently formed
under water, and mainly of leaves. In
this | have found the work of beavers;
have found sticks three inches through,
cut off in their peculiar style, plainly show
inc the marks of their teeth, build Il
wheelbarrow track of three-inch plank
from the surface of the swamp, like an
inclined plane, out on to dry ground three
or four rods distant; making the outer end
six or eight feet high. find IL five-tned
manure fork the best thing to handle muck
with, and to get out one hundred wheel
barrow loads is an avcragesday's work for
myself alone. My experience is, that
muck direct from the heap at the swamp,
is too cold and sour to be of much imme-
diatc benefit if Immediately worked in to
the soil. But when spread on moving
land right after hayng, il will get dried
by the sun. wet enough by rains, and
frozen enough in winter, to come 10 terms
the next summer and show where it has
been put by Il better growth of grass. To
warm up the muck, neutralize the acid in
! it, and make it as good as the best stable
manure, several methods are given in
Daua's Muck Manual and in John
sons Peat and its uscs,' the different
methods including the use of ashes, potash,
soda ash, guano, lime, salt, &c The au-
thors mentioned and other writers also,
recommend composing muck with ma
nure, claiming the mass will heat and
bring about the desired change in the
muck. Now it occurred to me that TO mix
muck with already hot and fermentng
manure would hasten the process that
the mixing might 90 on all winter. and
the mass be ready for use in the spring.
This is the plan TIL | have mainly follow
ed; and | believe it to be the cheapest,
and quickest method of making muck
available as manure. | bed my cows
with fine bedding, such us sawdust or
something that has been through straw
cutter, and the manure with such bedding
in it, heats rs surely us horse manure.
When u pile of several loads has accumu-
lated, spread down II layer of it on u flat
rs large us experience tells me Unnecessary
about shovel full deep and cover it with
muck, then cover the muck with manure,
and the manure with more muck, and so
on, till have used up all my heated ma
nure. Two or three weeks later, have
another spell of draining muck and lay
ing it up with manure as described, and so
continue all winter. Muck and manure
form Il very complete union; they supply
each others Deficiencies; the manure wants
muck to cool it off, and save the ammonia
and the muck wants manure to neutralize
its acid, and set 1t fermentng. Such Il
heap MS described usually keeps warm all
winter.
usually mix about equal parts of muck
and manure, hut when the weather is
warm and the manure very hot, put in
as much as two loads of muck to one OF
manure. From repeated trials year after
year, | am thoroughly satisfied such II
mixture is fully equal to the same bulk of
clear stable manure. | have never failed
of getting an average of fifty bushels of
shelled corn per acre, since began to use
muck. In the spring Of rs | spread fif-
teen loads of muck in my barnyard and
yarded six cattle on it every night till the
last week in October following, when |
| drew il out at fifteen loads, the muck hay-