Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1881-11-25
Agricultural.



Chemistry under the above title was copied
in The PHOENIX Of Oct. 2sth. Muck was
theren declared to have no manurial value
under any circumstances. To quote again
the language of the Journals Now muck
is not manure, whethe IL comes from n peat
meadow or from the silico us deposits in the
bed OF a dried-up frog-pond; and it cannot
be made into plant food by any expense of
time and labor that farmer can afford to
apply to it," "If it had alb
solute value as manure, it would not pay to
haul wet meadow muck long distances; but
it has not under any circumstances manurial
value"
According TO the writer-supposed to be
DIR. Nichols of the journal of Chemistry
only place where, in any case, it would be ad-
visable to use it would be in the stable, in a
dry state, as an absorbent of liquid manure !;
but even for that purpose it would not pay
unless it was of good quality and near the
barn. Opinions from such a source so OPP
posed to what agricultural chemists formerly
taught and what thousands of practical farm
ers have believed and practiced, naturally ex-
cites considerable comment and discussion,
and il is found that there are still many re-
spectacle believers in the fertilizing proper
ties of muck. On the other hand several
leading agricultural papers have copied APP
provingly the article from the journal of
Chemistry denouncing muck, in general, as
entirely worthless. Among the latter is the
New England Farmer a paper that within
the memory of many of its present readers
some of them not yet old-urged upon farm
ers the use of muck, recommending it when
properly composted, as in many cases not
much inferior to stable manure. Twenty
five years ago, Simon Brown, for several
years one of the editors of thar paper, wrote :
"Some 40 years ago these DOGGY or swampy
lands were regarded az nearly worthless for
anything except the meagre timber or fuel,
which might be obtained from them in win
ter, or the scanty and coarse heritage they af-
forded to cattle during the summer drouth.
Such is the change in their value that, where,
at the period named, they would scarcely
command So per acre, they now bring from
$50 to 800, and, in the neighborhood of
villages located on plain or sandy lands,
where they afford the greatest benefit in gar
dening they are worth $500 per acre, pro-
vided the muck is of good quality and of con-
venient access. Indeed it is often said by
persons about to purchase farms, that they
would not enter upon such as are not supplied
with meadow muck; for where it abounds
and good barn cellar exists, thrift and pros
perity are always certain" Ten years later
the same writer said: 'Muck, when free or
nearly free from acids, may be used by itself
with great benefit on light, sandy soils, or
on any soils from which the vegetable matter
is exhausted or it may be composted with
stable manure, ashes, guano, or animal mat
tiers, with peculiar advantage, since it has as
we have already observed the power of alb
sorbing and condensing the gases arising
from the putrefaction of these substances.
Many skillful farmers
consider compost of one half good muck
and one half stable manure fully equal for
corn culture to pure stable manure"
The journal of Chemistry denounces
Danas Muck Manual, work written about
twenty-five years ago by professional chem
list of Lowell as a book full of "errors and
absurdities, that has led more farmers into
mourning serious expenditures without cor
responding returns than any other book on
manure ever written" 1t may be so but
similar ideas of the value of muck, peat, hui
mus or vegetable mould as fertilizer, were
generally held at the time the book was pub.
lished, by the teachers of agricultural chem
istry. StOckhardt, O German professor OF
agricultural chemistry, and author of work
that has been extensively used in the schools
of this country as text book, defining the
term hltmuS, which the more general term,
muck, includes as well as the different forms
of peat says:
"This term is identical with decaying or
ganic matter. In this acceptation it has for
many years been known and valued in agri
culture. Carbonic acid anG
water are indispensable to the nourshment
of plants; hence in a soil rich in humus the
plants will grow more vigorously, because
they find these and can absorb by their root
lets more of these two nutritive substances
than they could in a soil poor in mould. HUI
mus exerts, moreover, q beneficial influence
upon vegetation, because it looseDs the sol
by the development of carbonic acid; because
it possesses the power of attracting water
from the cir and of retaining it for a lonl
time; and because by means of the acid con
ltlutu IL Is hDl6 10 extract ammonia from lnt
air and also from manure"
We quote from other chemists:
''Humus acts in the same manner in a sol
permeable to air as in the air itself; it is
continual source of carbonic acid, which i
emits very slowly. An atmosphere of car
bOnic acid formed at the expense of the air
surrounds every particle of decaying humus
The cultivation of land, by tilling and loosen
ing the soil, causes a free and unobstructeC
access of air. An atmosphere of carbon
acid is therefore contained in every fertil
soil, and is the first and most important fooC
for the young plants which grow in it, Il
spring, when those organs of plants are alb
sent which nature has appointed for the as
sumption of nourishment from the atmos
phere, the component substance of the seed
is exclusively employed in the formation o
the roots Each new radicle fbril which
plant acquires may be regarded as consttut
ing at the same time a mouth, a lung and
stomach. The roots perform the function
of the leaves from the first moment of thei
formation. They extract from the soil thei
proper nutriment-namely, the carbonic aeit
generated by the humus. "-Lie6ig.
ITO soils which are deficient in vegetabl
matter, it is clear that judicious admixtur
of peat must prove advantageous, because
will supply some, at least, of those substance
which are necessary to the production of
higher degree of fertility.
In short, it is only necessary to mix half -drie
peat with any substance which undergoes raj
id decomposition, when it will more or lei
speedily become infected with the same tel
dency to decay and will thus be rendered CT
pablo of ministering to the growth of plants.
james II. W. Johnston, n. Il. S., duthC
Of Lectures on agricultural ChemistTy."
''In many parts of the world vegetabl
matter continually accumulates in the form
peat This peat ought TO supply an ine'
haustible store of organic matter for the am
Iteration of the adjacent soils. We know thi
by draining off the sour and unwholesom
water, and afterwards applying lime and ella.
the surface of peat boys may be gradual
converted into rich corn bearing lands.
must, therefore, be possible to convert PEI
itself by q similar nrncess intn q cnmnnst q