The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1882-06-16
.Aboat MucK.


The fallacy of muck consists in the
error of regarding it as manure. or a
substance which turns spontaneously In
20 manure without cost to the farmer.
The term muck" is usually applied to
he dark, wet, unctious 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
.wo specimens taken from different
localities being alike. The advocates
Of muck, or the writers upon the sub
iect. have but little to say in regard to
these important notifications; with
Them muck is muck, whether it be made
up of black sand or vegetable debris in
stage 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. It is not manure, and more
over it cannot be made into plant food
by any expense of time and labor which
the farmer can afford to apply to it.
For a period of twenty-five years we
have given much attention to muck,
and have instituted a series of expert
ments with it in the laboratory and in
the field, in all the forms and modifica-
tons in which it is found upon New
England farms, and we say now what
we have often said before. it is mate
rial which, in general, farmers cannot
afford to spend much time upon. If it
had absolute or potential value as ma
nure, the wet mud from meadows can
not be hauled long distances with profit,
but it has not, under any circumstances,
manurial value. The peat of boys.
as freshly taken out, averages OF
water fully ninety per cent. and .
load of this of 1900 pounds gives but q
couple of hundred pounds of dry humus
at the barn. If through inexperience
or want of close observation farmer
backs up his cart to mud hole, dry in
summer, he loads into it substance
which is usually valueless; we have
seen many farmers hard at work after
haying upon a deposit of this nature,
and have often had the pleasure of say.
ing 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
mold is zone well calculated to de-
ceive" 1t looks rich and is tempting
to many who desire to increase their ma
nurial resources. A little of this mate
rial put into tumbler and stirred up
with much water 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 under
stood among chemists, or at least it
ought to be. 1t really holds no avaiIa-
bic plant-food, although it contains
some nitrogen and carbonaceous ele.
ments. These do not exist in it in
available forms and cannot be brought
into that state at cost which will, un-
der ordinary conditions, warrant trans.
portation and manipulation. Muck has
certain value as an absorbent of liquid
manure, and it may pay to procure and
dry it for such purposes; 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
IN any point, and therefore it is impor-
tant that the true value of what is called
muck should be understood. "-Boston
Journal Of Chemistry.