Rocky Mountain husbandman. [volume] (Diamond City, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1881-10-20
THR MUCK DELUSION.

The deluslon which prevailed twenty and
more years ago. regarding the manurial
value of what is known as muck, has lost
some of its force, but it still exists among
farmers, especially those new in the indus
try. Among the newspapers "the great
| value of muck to farmers is a standing
text from which labored sermon is preach
ed once or twice year. TWENTY-FIVE or
thirty years ago little book was published
by DR.. Dana. Lowell chemist. EMPLOYED
in one of the dyeing establishments of that
city, which supplies the material for these
sermons, and will continue to do so, per
haps, for the next halt century That book
is ful OF errors and absurdities, and has led
more farmers into incurring serious expen-
dltares, without corresponding returns, than
any book on manure ever written. The fall
lacy OF muck consists in the error OF regard
ing it as manure, or q substance which turns
spontaneously into manure without cost to
the farmer. The term anuck is usually ap-
piled to the dark, wet, unctuous product OF
low meadows, and the black mud from the
bed OF marshy lakes and frog ponds. The
material varies greatly in physical character
and chemical composition, no tive speci-
mems, taken from different localities, being
alike. The advocates of muck, or the writ
ers upon the subject have but little to say
in regard to these important notifications
with them, muck is muck, whether it be
be made up of black sand ur of vegetable
debris in state of partial decomposition.
Now, muck is not a manure, whether it
comes from peat meadow or from the sill
cious deposits in the bed of a dried up frog
pond. 1t is not manure. and moreover, it
cannet be made into plant food by any ex-
pense of time and labor which the farmer
can affard to apply to it. For a period Of
twenty-five years, we have given much at
tention to muck, and have instituted &C.
res of experiments with it in the labratory
and in the field, in all the forms and modifi-
cations in which it is found upon New Eng
land farms, and we say now, what we have
often said before, it is material which, il.
general, farmers cannot afford to spend
much time upon. If it had absolute or po-
tential value as manure, the wet mud from
meadows could not be hauledlong distances
with profit; but it has not under any cir
cumstances, manurial value. The peat of
bogs, as freshly taken out, averages OF wa
ter fully ninety per cent, and load Of this
of two thousand pounds gives but couple
of hundred pounds of dry hunus at the
barn. If through incxperience, or want of
close observation, farmer backs up his
cart to mud hole, dry in summer, he loads
less. We have seen many farmers hard at
work, after haying, upon deposit of this
character and have often had the pleasure
of saving them much toll, by proving on the
spot the worthlessness of the substance they |
were endeavoring to utilize. A substance
holding seventy per cent. of clear sand, and |
thirty per cent. of black mould, is Zone
well calculated to deceiye::' 1t looks rich,
and is tempting to many who desire to in
crease their manurial resources. A little OF
this material put into tumbler and stirred
up with as much water at once reveals itself,
as the sand settles to the bottom and sthe
black vegetable matter floats above.
The true value of muck is we'll under
stood among chemists, or at least it ought
10 be. It really holds no available plant
food, although it contains some nitrogen
and carbonaceous eeme.s. These do not
exist in the available forms, and cannot be
brought into that state at cost which will