Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1881-10-28

The delusion which prevailed twenty and
more years ago regarding the manurial value
of what is known as muck haslost some of its
force, but IL still exists among farmers, espec-
tally those new in the industry. Among news
papers, ''the great value of muck to farmers"
is standing text, from which a labored SER
mon is preached once or twice year. Some
25 or 30 years ago, a little book was published
by DR.. Dana, a Lowell chemist employed in
one Of the dyeing establishments Of that city,
which supplies the material for these SER
mons, and will perhaps continue to do so for
the next half century. The book is full of
errors and absurdities, and has led more far
mers into mourning serious expenditures with
out corresponding returns than any other book
on manure ever written. The fallacy Of muck
consists in the error of regarding it as ma
nure, or as a substance which turns spontane-
ously into manure without cost to the farmer.
The term "muck" is applied 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 two specimens taken from different locali-
ties being alike. The advocates of muck, or
the writer's upon the subject, say little about
these important notifications. With them
muck is muck, whether made up of black sand
or of vegetable matter in a state of partial
decomposition. Now muck is not manure,
whether it comes from peat meadow or from
the siliclous 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 which
the farmer can afford to apply to it. For 20
years we have given much attention to muck,
and have instituted q series of experiments
with it in the laboratory and in the field, in all
the forms and notifications in which il is
found on New England farms; and we say
now, what we have often said before, it is a
material which in general farmers cannot af-
ford to spend much time upon. II it had alb
solute value as manure, it would not pay to
haul wet meadow mud long distances; but it
has not under any circumstances maDurial
value. The peat of boys, as freshly taken
out, averages fully 80 per cent of water, and
a 20O0-pound load of this gives but 200 pounds
of dry humus at the barn. If, through mex
perience or want of close observation, a far
mer backs up his cart to a mud-hole, dry in
summer, he loads into it a substance which is
usually valueless. We have seen many farm
ers hard at work, after haying, upon depos-
it of this nature, ana have often had the
pleasure of saving them much toll by proving
on the spot the worthlessnness of the sub
stance they were trying to utilize. A sub
stance holding 20 per cent of clear sand and
80 per cent of black mould is one we'll calcu-
ing to many who desire to increase their ma
nurial resources. A little of this material put
into tumbler and stirred up with much wa
ter, at once reveals itself, as the sand settles
to the bottom and the black vegetable matter
floats above.
The true value of muck is well understood
among chemists-or at least it ought to be.
1t really holds no available plant food though
it contains some nitrogen and carbonaceous
elements. These do not exist in it in avala-
BILE forms, and cannot be brought into that
state at a cost which will under ordinary con-
ditions warrant transportation and manipula-
ton. Muck has a certain value as an absorb
ent of liquid manure, and it may pay to pro-
cure and dry it for that purpose, but to meet
this want it must be convenient to the barn
and of good quality. Farmers cannot afford
to be deluded or led astray on any point, and
therefore it is important that the true value
of what is called muck should be understood
Boston JOurndIof Chemistry.