Rensselaer Union, Volume 10, Number 19, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 January 1878 — Muck. [ARTICLE]

Muck.

Farmers do not make enough of the muck in their swamps. Muck is nothing less than the accumulated vegetation and plant-food of countless ages. The best time for digging muck is in dry weather, say July or August; although in some cases this can be more profitably done when the ground is frozen hard and labor is cheaper or more convenient in winter. Muck recently dug should neVer be plowed under until it has been fermented by the action of salts or niello wed by frosts; otherwise it will remain in lumps in the earth, often for years, without producing any beneficial results. W hen taken out, it is sometimes a good pl§n to leave it for six months or even a year, if convenient, exposed to the pulverizing action of the air, in small heaps, on the margin of the place from which it has been taken. Bv leaving it in this way and occasionally w’orking it over, it will become in course, of time, without further treatment, fit for application to any kind of soil; but especially to those that are sandy and light. When dry, muck makes an excellent bedding-for stock in the stable or pigpen, where it proves a powerful absorbent of urine and ammonia. The escape of ammonia (the most volatile but the best part of the manures about the homestead) is in a great measure the cause of the strong odor from stalls, barnyards, sinks and privies. In the stable a bedding of dry muck, a couple of inches thick, will arrest and imprison the fugitive, while a slight covering of leaves and straw will keep the animals unsoiled on lying down at night. The foulest stable-floor will lose its pungent odor in a few minutes if overlaid with fine muck or pulverized peat. When dug in the summer and intended for this purpose,the dryer portions should be taken to the barnyard and placed under shelter; and in piling it up it would be well to mix it thoroughly with a small quantity of lime, to prepare it for quick decomposition. Another advantage of such treatment is that a large quantity of it can afterward be added to the manure in the compostheap. If then composted in proportion of five loads of muck to one of manure, the absorption of urine and the retention of gases, together with the elements of the muck itself, will render the whole mass as good as an equal bulk of uncomposted manure. The most expeditious way to prepare muck for use is to mix with it a quantity of lime, in the proportion of from three to five bushels of the latter to a cord of the former. The lime to be used for this purpose should always be fresh slaked; and if it is thoroughly blended with the mass its effect is invariably more powerful and rapid than if spread in alternate layers, as some advise. Work the Tioap over In about ten days, and it 2 will be ready for application to the land in three or four weeks; or it may be used as an absorbent of aninjaLmanure after three months, Tor this ahterval at least should always be alloWed to intervene between the application of lime to muck and the use of the mixture in the stable. Muck may be advantageously composted with barnyard manure in any proportions, from one load of each to five of the former with one of the latter; but the nearer the compost approaches to equal proportions of both the more satisfactory the results. The heap should bo built in alternate layers of from six to eight inches, and care should be taken that the muck is wet When cofnposted, to promote fermentation and the diffusion of alkaline ingredients. It should lie worked over occasionally, and if the heap is so constructed as to permit this to be done with the plow it will insure a considerable saving of labor, < ’

Under certain conditions, after partial decay has taken place, further decomposition ceases unless promoted by alkaline applications. The decaying vegetable matter contains several acids, as gallic and tannic, which are developed by fermentation; and the fibers in the muck become coated with a species of asphaltum or pitchy matter, which prevents the necessary access of air to the inner portions, and so prevents decomposition. Under these circumstances, the contents of the heap should be freely exposed to air, ana warmth and an alkali (lime, potash, or soda) should be applied, to neutralize the acids and dissolve the sphaltio coating. In this connection the application of ashes is generally very effective; for, although there is considerably more alkali in a bushel of lime freshly slaked than in one of ashes, yet the potash in the former is much more soluble, and consequently more readily diffused throughout the heap. Marl, shellsand, and soapsuds, thoroughly mixed with the compost, are also promotive of fermentation, as they also are rich in alkaline properties. Finally, the best use of muck is as an absorbent in the stable, pig-pen, sheep-fold, and barnyard. In these its own fertilizing properties are best developed, while it collects and retains much of the urine and ammonia, which would otherwise be wasted. Properly decomposed, its effects are good on all soils," even on reclaimed swamp-land; but it is most beneficial on light, sandy ground.— Rural New Yorker.