News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1883-01-25
MallreS, and Their Application.

| average farmer, IS stable nlttlIIIG, "7LIO9'
fish, and the various chemical fertilizers
found in the market.
Chemists tell us that the liquid ma
nure from our stable is far more Yalua-
bic than the solid. If so, how to save II
becomes an important question with
farmers. For some twenty years L have
used dry muck for this purpose, belev-
ing it to be the best available absorbent
[ can get The muck is THROWN out dur
ing the summer. and allowed to lie ovel
winter exposed to the disinte8ratlnG
action of frosts and heat 1t is then dry,
fine and very light and in the best posi-
bic condition to absorb the liquids and
washings of the barnyard and out build
ings.
[ have used muck because it IS the
most convenient absorbent to be had IN
our section. IF I had a sand pit near by
I should certainly use that, as from
some experiments I have tried [ believe
it to be better for our clay land than
muck. While muck has a very great
capacity for absorbing liquids, 1t IS
nOn-conductor of heat, greater even than
sawdust, a small pile OF muck, as 1t IS
thrown out, sometimes retaining the
frost until June. | am satisfied that II
the lining of my ice house was filled
with muck. the ice in contact with the
boarding would never nelt. Sand, on
the other hand, is a good conductor OF
heat. 1t warns up readily, and conse-
quently is more beneficial to our cold
land. Seven years ago / plowed up a
piece of low lying pasture and hauled a
large quantity of sand from the top Of a
hill near by, and spread it upon the
same. It was then Ieveled and bone
dust at the rate of 500 pounds to the
acre applied. Last season l cut the
sixth crop Of English hay from it, and
although the quality had deteriorated
somewhat, the crop was very good one.
l have reason to think that the six crops
OF hay have well repaid the labor ex-
pended upon it.
Quite q number of years since | hauled
a large quantity of clay taken from the
roadside, and applied it to piece OF
light land. The increased productive
ness of the land showed that it had re
ceived considerable benefit, but hardly
enough to pay for the labor of drawing
so much heavy clay up hill, although
the distance was small.
Several years ago it was my good for
tune to meet with a gentleman at the
New England Agricultural Society's
Fair" who had a hobby, and that hobby
was muck. He believed in it. He
worshiped it. Muck was the grand
regenerator of the sterile soil of \. e.
Farmers would no longer be obliged to
work all summer to get fodder to keep
a stock of cattle through our long cold
winters, for animal manure was no longer
a necessity. Under the benign intlu-
ence Of muck our barren billsides would
blossom as the rose. He had talked so
long and ably that his voice had ac-
quired an oily snoothness suggestive Of
the unctious, Shiny, slippery mass OF
muck as it is taken dripping from the
ditch. He thought, or rather k"c,o,
that he could tell the value Of muck by
its color, and that one kind Of rotten
wood made a more valuable manure than
another kind Of rotten wood. That
muck from the deposits OF coniferous
forest growth was less valuable than
that from Il deciduous forest growth. In
short. he talked 50 glibly that he half
convinced me that he was right [ deter
mined to experiment upon muck. The
wear before I had bought two-thirds Of
an acre of worn out field land it yielded
thirteen small cocks Of hay. Upon this
field [ spread n good dressing of dry
muck as fine as ashes. The next year [
cut the same quantity Of hay, a large
admixtIlre of soIrel, and the third year
the results were the same, or thirteen
cocks OF hay. It didn't pay! l then
spread q dressing of ashes during the
winter. The succeeding season the
crop was doubled. That paid
For twenty years I have used from
thirty to one hundred loads of muck pei
year. use it solely as an absorbent, as
/ believe from experiments ! have tried
that it has little if any manUrial value
when used upon my land i'll its natural
condition. But it is a costly way to save
the liquids; a better way must be de-
vised. I think of building a cistern
large enough to hold all the liquid
manure we have, put pump in it, and
use Il street sprinkler, and apply it to
the growing crops Of grass.
[ know Of a pasture in neighboring
town that was literally covered with
muck. The land was hilIy, with light
sandy or gravelIy soil. That land did
not produce much but swilI for several
years, and now is no better pasture than
that adjoining. upon which no muck has
been applied.
Dr.. Nichols tells us that muck CON
tains ninety per cent. water. That one
ton of muck, water free, contains 1910
lbs. of nitrogen. For convenience sake
we will call it 80 lbs. Thus in 10 tons
Of muck as taken from the ditch we get
50 lbs. of nitrogen or one-fOTth OF one
per cent. a mere trace: \ combination
ofnitrogen andhydrogen forms ammonia,
one of our most valuable plant foods.
The extremelysmallq quantity of nitrogen
contained in the muck may account for
the mfavorable result Of my experiment.
1t is very generally admitted by
chemists thai every raiu carries with it
to the earth some portion Of the nitrogen
contained in atmospheric air and as four
fifths of the enormous envelope Of air
surrounding the earth consists OF
nitrogen, the quantity carried to the soil
by rains in one season, may be larger
than the nitrogen contained in all the
muck we could have in a lifetime.
Years ago I used to make 4 practice
of throwing over manure. l thought |
must do it in order TO raise satisfactory
crops, and now, if | should hire an acre
of land for one year, and had to find
manure myself, [ should certainly throw
it over until it was completely pulverZed,
so that the growing crop should get the
whole, if possible, of the plant food con-
tanned in that manure. But u We own
the land what is the use Of spending so
much labor? The manure is in the Land
aud we will net it sooner or later, | am