The Toledo chronicle. [volume] (Toledo, Tama County, Iowa) 1873-1924, 1878-01-17
Muck.

Farmers do not make enough of the
muck in their swamps. Muck is moth
ing less than the accumulated vegeta-
ton and plant-food of countless ages.
The best time for digging muck is in
dry weather, say July or August; al
though in some cases this can be more
profitably done when the ground is
frozen hard and labor is cheaper or
more convenient in winter. Muck re-
Gently dug should never be plowed un-
der until it has been fermented by the
action of salts or mellowed by frosts;
otherwise it will remain in Jumps in the
earth, often for years, without produc-
ing any beneficial results. When taken
out, it is sometimes a good plan to
leave it for six months or even a year, if
convenient, exposed to the pulverizing
action of the air, in small heaps, on the
margin of the place from which it has
been taken. By leaving it in this way
and occasionally working it over, it
will become in course of time. without
further treatment, fit for application to
any kind of soil; but especially to those
that are sandy and light.
When dry, muck makes an excellent
bedding for stock in the stable or pig
pen, where it proves a powerful alb
sorbent of urine and ammonia. The
escape of ammonia (the most volatile
but the best part of the manures about
the homestead) is in great measure
the cause of the strong odor from stalls,
barnyards, sinks and privies. In the
stable a bedding of dry muck, couple
of inches thick, will arrest and impris-
on the fugitive, while IA slight covering
of leaves and straw will keep the ami
mails unsoiled ON lying down at night.
The fOulest stable-floor will lose its
pungent odor in a few minutes if
overlaid with fine muck or pull
verified peat. When dug in the
summer and intended for this pur-
pose, the dryer portions should
be taken to the barnyard and placed
under shelter; and in piling it up it
would be well to mix it thoroughly with
small quantity of lime, to prepare it
for quick decomposition. Another adj
vantage of such treatment is that a
large quantity of it can afterward be
added to the manure in the compost
heap. If then composted in proportion
of five loads of muck to one of manure,
the absorption of urine and the reten-
ton of gases. together with the ele-
ments of the muck itself, will render
the whole mass as good as an equal
bulk of uncomposted manure. The
most expeditions way to prepare muck
for use is to mix with it quantity of
lime, in the proportion Of from three to
five bushels of the latter to accord of the
former. The lime to be used for this
purpose should always be fresh slaked;
and if it is thoroughly blended with the
mass its effect is invariably more pow
erful and rapid than if spread in altern-
ate layers, as some advise. Work the
heap over in about ten days, and it will
be ready for application to the land in
three or four weeks; or it may be used
as an absorbent of animal manure after
three months, for this interval at least
should always be allowed to intervene
between the application of lime to
muck and the use of the mixture in the
stable.
Muck may be advantageously COM
posted with barnyard manure in any
proportions, from one load of each
to five of the former with one of the
latter; but the nearer the compost APP
proaches to equal proportions of both
the more satisfactory the results. The
heap should be built in alternate layers
of from six to eight inches, and care
should be taken that the muck is wet
when composted, to promote fermenta-
ton and the diffusion of alkaline ingre-
dents. It should be worked over occa-
sionally, and if the heap is SO con-
structed as to permit this to be done
with the pillow it will insure a consider
able saving of labor
Under certain conditions, after partial
decay has taken place, further decom-
position ceases unless promoted by
alkaline applications. The decaying
vegetable matter contains several acids,
as gallo and fannie, which are de-
veloped by fermentation; and the fibers
in the muck become coated with q spe-
cies Of asphaltum or pitchy matter,
which prevents the necessary access of
air to the inner portions, and SO pre-
vents decomposition. Under these cir
the contents Of the heap
should be freely exposed to sir, and
warmth and an alkali Qime. potash, or
goda) should be applied, to neutFalize
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