Prof. S. W. Johnson, as chemist to the Conn. State Ag. Society, made accurate analyses of 33 samples of peat and muck sent him by gentlemen from different parts of the State. The amount of potential ammonia in the chemically dry peat was found to vary from 0.58 in the poorest, to 4.06 per cent in the richest samples. In other words, one deposit of muck may contain seven times as much nitrogen as another, and it would be well before spending much money in drawing out muck for manure to send a sample of it to some good chemist. A bed of swamp-muck, easily accessible, and containing 3 per cent of nitrogen, would be a mine of wealth to any farmer. One ton of such muck, dry, would contain more nitrogen than 7 tons of straw. “It would be capital stuff,” said the Deacon, “to put in your pig-pens to absorb the urine. It would make rich manure.” “That is so,” said I, “and the weak point in my pig-breeding is the want of sufficient straw. Pigs use up more bedding than any other animals. I have over 200 pigs, and I could use a ton of dry muck to each pig every winter to great advantage. The pens would be drier, the pigs healthier, and the manure richer.” The Doctor here interrupted us. “I see,” said he, “that the average amount of ammonia in the 33 samples of dry peat analyzed by Professor Johnson is 2.07 per cent. I had no idea that muck was so rich. Barn-yard manure, or the manure from the horse stables in the cities, contains only half a per cent (0.5) of ammonia, and it is an unusually rich manure that contains one per cent. We are safe in saying that a ton of dry muck, on the average, contains at least twice as much potential ammonia as the average of our best and richest stable-manure.” CHAPTER VI. WHAT IS POTENTIAL AMMONIA? “You say,” said the Deacon, “that dry muck contains twice as much ‘_potential ammonia_’ as manure?” “Yes,” said the Doctor, “it contains three or four times as much as the half-rotted straw and stalks you call manure.” “But what do you mean,” asked the Deacon, “by ‘_potential_ ammonia?’”