Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1879-04-16
Inquiries about Muck.


A correspondent writes as follows:
In all parts of Vermont there are deposits OF
vegetable matter preserved from decomposition
by the presence of water. About ponds and lakes
there are acres made up of messy growth, but a
much larger quantity by lake, pond river and
brook is covered now with rank grass, weeds
aders, ash mixed forest and we may conclude
that the underlying muck was made by the leaves
and vegetation that has fallen as it matured and
has been preserved. We call it all muck We
may suspect that this vegetation is rich in
plant food as the hay and straw fed to cattle.
The cattle mastcate and digest the hay and straw
and from it a large part of its nitrogen phos-
phorous and other mineral elements leach away
and are wasted. The plants that have fallen into
the water part with some of the soluble elements
If the water the surface every Spring,
as melting SHOWS cause the streams to overflow
and cover all the low land. Yet the mass gains
in fertiizng properties by the insect life that
cupes the stagnant water 1t is the home of the
jovial mosquito and the pollywog, and all their
friends. So every season as the water dries away
the death of this insect life will go far toward re-
placing the fertility that may have washed away
from the vegetable mass.
You see by this attempt at reasoning that | sus-
pect muck ought to be as good dressing for up
land as ordinary barn manure. Why is it not?
What shall we do to it to make it good? Do not
tell me to put it in the stable to be saturated
with liquid manure, put it in the hog-pen to be
worked over by well-fed pig For this time and
capital are required.
How can a poor man manage who rents
farm and moves on it in 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 a wornout
farm, with good muck beds upon it, what shall he
do with it?
have read through pamphlet issued by Will
son, who makes a superphosphate-its title is
THE Compost Heap" 1t tells how to use good
manure, and tons of superphosphate with muck,
and the crops are excellent. The manure and
superphosphate are lacking in my case.
read in Warnings Elements of Agriculture"
that lime Stacked with salt water and four bush
els OF the mixture in a cord of muck will change
the mass in month to 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 well
as can be done
farmer who lives few miles south of Mont
peier told me that when he built his house he
had 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 it most as fine as ashes.
He put 1t 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 applied, and would not so hasten de-
composition.
1t seems as though there must be valuable re-
suits of experiments known to some of your read
ers in regard to process whereby muck can be
made as good manure by cheap process, and
in large quantities If So the restoration of worn
out soils will be an agreeable work, and many
new beginners in farming will be enabled to Sc
cure good crops without buying commercial fer
tilizers. xx
ANSWER BY THE EDIToR.-The reason
that muck is not found more profitable by
farmers in general is that they do not I'M
derstand its nature. 1t is, as our correspond
emit suggests, generally very rich in materi-
ais for plant growth, but they have become
insoluble by forming combinations with the
vegetable acids generated in decomposition.
These acids must be neutralized to set the
plant food free, and to do this alkais must
beemployed. Quick-lme 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
fertilizer, or for employment about stables
as an absorbent.
We have used considerable muck as a
fertilizer and esteem it highly, especially
upon light soils. If it is dug and left in a
pile until the water is drained away from it,
then mixed with lime, say barrel to four
twohorse loads, it will become quite fine
and dry in week or two. This makes good
dressing for potatoes or it may be put be-
hind the COWS to absorb the urine when it
becomes still more valuable, and is worth
more than an equal bulk of ordinary stable
manure Another way to neutralze its
acids is to mix unleached ashes with it, in
stead Of lime This has no such drying eff
feet as lime, but it sweetens the muck quite
as effectively, and the ashes adds to its fer.
tilizing effect. Two bushels of ashes to a
load makes strong compost.
Simply leaving the muck in piles over
winter so that it shall freeze and thaw, has
somewhat the same effect as mixing with
lime or ashes though not so thorough, This
is the cheapest way, and most muck treated
thus and then spread and plowed in viii
give good results, either on corn or potatoes
A farmer who has good muck bed SHOULD
use it to enrich his uplands, and he can pu
in his spare time Summers and Winters to N,
better advantage than in digging and com
posting this fossil manure so as to develop
its fertilizing power. We have raised nobl
crops of potatoes on very poor land, usinl
nothing but muck composted with ashes.