The Middlebury register. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1850-1882, 1879-05-09
Inquiries about Muck.
correspondent writes as follows


are acres made up Of messy growth,
but q much larger quantity by lake,
pond, river aud brook is covered now
with rank grass, weeds, alders, ash or
mixed forest and we may conclude
that the underlying muck was made by
the leaves vegetation that has fallen as
it matured, and has been preserved,
We call it all muck. We may suspect
that this vegetation is as rich in plant
food as the hay and straw fed to cattle.
The cattle masticate and digest the hay
and straw, and from it large part of
its nitrogen phosphorus and other min
eral elements leach away and are vast
ed. The plants that have fallen into
the water part with some Ct the soluble
elements if the water runs over the sur
face every Spring, as melting SHOWS
cause the streams to overflow and cover
all the low land. Yet the mass gains
in fertilizing properties by the insect
life that occupies the stagnant water.
1t is the home of the jovial mosquito
and the pollywog, and all their friends.
So severy season as the water dries
away, the death of this insect life will
go far toward replacing the fertility
that may have washed away from the
vegetable mass.
You see by this attempt at reasoning
that suspect muck ought to be as good
dressing for upland as ordinary barn
manure. Why is it notp What shall
we do to make it good? Donot tell me
to putt in the cow stable to be saturated
with liquid manure, or. put it i'm the
hog-pen to be worked over by well
fed pig. For this time and capital are
required.
How can poor, man manage who
rents a farm and moves on 1t i'll the
Spring, where the hay has been drawn
away and no manure piles TO be moved
upon hungry acres, yet where hundreds
of loads of muck lay accessible? What
shall he do with it? And the man who
buys wornout farm, with good muck
beds upon it, what shall he do with it?
have resd through phamphlet is
sued by Wilson, who makes a super
phosphate-its title is "The Compost
Heap" 1t tells how to use good ma
nure, and tons of superphosphate with
muck, and the crops are excellent. The
manure and superphosphate are lacking
in my case.
read in "Waring's Elements of Ag-
riculture," that lime Stacked with salt
water and four bushels of the mixture in
a cord of muck will change the mass in
a month to q pulverized dust which is
excellent to compost with manure or to
use about the stables as an absorbent.
He further states that such muck is as
valuable as manure exposed to the
weather one season. Perhaps this is
as we'll as can be done.
A farmer who lives a few miles
south of Montpelier told me that when
he built his house he had a barrel of
lime left, and just before having he
drew twenty loads of muck into pile,
and put his lime into the middle of the
pile. 1t smoked and steamed and
swelled up, but he let it alone until
Fall, then found 1t most as fine as ashes.
He fput il on grass and about apple
trees, with wonderful results in growth
of grass and trees. Manure could not
have given better result, but he has
not tried the experiment again. Is not
the heat generated by the lime very
beneficial in this last experiment? The
salt and lime mixture is cold when ap-
piled, and would not so hasten decom-
position.
1t seems as though there must be val
liable results of experiments known to
some of your readers in regard to pro-
cess whereby muck can be made as
good as manure by a cheap process, and
III large quantities. If so, the restora-
ton of wornont coils will be an agree
able work, and many new beginners in
farming will be enabled to secure good
crops without buying commercial fer
tilizers. Xxx.
ANSWER BY THE EDIToR.-The rea-
son that muck is not found to be more
profitable by farmers in general is that
they do not understand its nature. 1t
is, as orr correspondent suggests, gen
orally very rich in materials for plant
growth, but they have become insoluble
by forming combinations with the vege.
table acids generated in decomposition.
These acids must be neutralized to set
the plant food free, and to do this aka
lesmastb employee. Quick-lime serves
an excellent purpose, and also, by its
affinity for water, exerts drying and
pulverizing action that fits the muck for
use, either directly as a fertilizer, or for
employment about stables as an absor-
bent. nt.t-fttA A
We have used considerable muck as
fertilizer and esteem it highly, especi-
ally upon light soil. fit is dug and
left in a pile until the water is drained
away from it, then mixed with lime,
say barrel 10 four two-horse loads, il
will become quite fine and dry in a
week or two. This makes a good
dressing for potatoes; or il may be put
behind the cows TO absorb the urine
whenit becomes still more valuable
and is worth more than an equal bull
Of ordinary manure. Another way t.
neutralize its acids is TO mix unbleachet
ashes with IL, instead of lime. Thi
has no such drying effect as lime, but i
sweetens the muck quite as efIectivel,
and the ashes adds TO its fertilizing eff
feet. Two bushels of ashes to LOAF
makes strong compost.
~ Simply leaving the muck In plies owe
winter SO that il shall freeze and thaw
has something the effect as mixing witt
lime or ashes, though not so thorough
This is the cheapest way, and mos
muck treated thus and then spread an,
plowed In will give good results, eithe
on corn or potatoes. A farmer who ha
good muck bed should use it TO en-
rich his uplandN, and The can put in ID
spare time Summers and Winters 10 n
better advantage than in digging an
4 composing this fossil manure SO as 1t
develop its fertilizing power. We hav
raised noble crops Of potatoes on yer
poor land. using nothing but muck com
posted with ashes.-[Watchman am
Journal.f0OD va ST. sif ie