Evening Republican, Volume 19, Number 198, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 21 August 1915 — MUSSEL MUD AS FERTILIZER [ARTICLE]

MUSSEL MUD AS FERTILIZER

Organic Remains of Shellfish Secure Fertility to Poorest and Most Exhausted Soil. Consul Frank Deedmeyer writes from Charlottetown, P. E. 1., Canada: In most of the bays indenting the shores of Prince Edward island are found extensive deposits of mussel shells, so called locally, being organic remains of countless generations of oysters, mussels, clams, and other bivalves of the ocean, and of crustaceous animals generally. The shells, usually more or less intact, are found imbedded in dense deposits of mudlike substance and this combination is a fertilizer of high value and potency. It supplies small quantities of phosphates and alkalies. An ordinary dressing of It secures fertility in a striking manner to the poorest or most exhausted soil. The shells decay slowly, year by year, throwing off a film of fertilizing stuffs. The deposits around Prince Edward island vary from five to twenty-five feet in depth. They are taken up by dredging machines worked from rafts in summer or from the ice in winter.