Peat and its Uses as Fertilizer and FuelJohnson, Samuel W. (Samuel William)
Science
Peat and its Uses as Fertilizer and Fuel
Johnson, Samuel W. (Samuel William)
Fertilizers; Fuel; Peat
_Peruvian Guano_, so serviceable in its first applications to light
soils, may be composted with muck to the greatest advantage. Guano is an
excellent material for bringing muck into good condition, and on the
other hand the muck most effectually prevents any waste of the costly
guano, and at the same time, by furnishing the soil with its own
ingredients, to a greater or less degree prevents the exhaustion that
often follows the use of guano alone. The quantity of muck should be
pretty large compared to that of the guano,--a bushel of guano will
compost six, eight, or ten of muck. Both should be quite fine, and
should be well mixed, the mixture should be moist and kept covered with
a layer of muck of several inches of thickness. This sort of compost
would probably be sufficiently fermented in a week or two of warm
weather, and should be made and kept under cover.
If no more than five or six parts of muck to one of guano are employed,
the compost, according to the experience of Simon Brown, Esq., of the
Boston _Cultivator_, (Patent Office Report for 1856), will prove
injurious, if placed in the hill in contact with seed, but may be
applied broadcast without danger.
The _Menhaden_ or "_White fish_", so abundantly caught along our Sound
coast during the summer months, or any variety of fish may be composted
with muck, so as to make a powerful manure, with avoidance of the
excessively disagreeable stench which is produced when these fish are
put directly on the land. Messrs. Stephen Hoyt & Sons, of New Canaan,
Conn., make this compost on a large scale. I cannot do better than to
give entire Mr. Edwin Hoyt's account of their operations, communicated
to me several years ago.
"During the present season, (1858,) we have composted about 200,000
white fish with about 700 loads (17,500 bushels) of muck. We vary the
proportions somewhat according to the crop the compost is intended for.
For rye we apply 20 to 25 loads per acre of a compost made with 4,500
fish, (one load) and with this manuring, no matter how poor the soil,
the rye will be as large as a man can cradle. Much of ours we have to
reap. For oats we use less fish, as this crop is apt to lodge. For corn,
one part fish to ten or twelve muck is about right, while for grass or
any top-dressing, the proportion of fish may be increased."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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