MUCK.

Temuka Leader, Volume I, Issue 70, 17 August 1878, Page 3

MUCK.

[From the ‘ Economist.’] “Muck is the mother of meal,” saj-s the old maxim, which is well worth remembering for its profound truth. So, also, is the old farmer’s advice to his son, who was commencing in business for himself, “ Never get into debt, but if you do let it be for muck.” When we occasionally pass along the road through the naturally barren district lying between St. Kilda and Mordiailoc—now fast being •converted into fertile gardens by the untiring industry of the market gardener and his knowledge of the value of muck — we mentally estimate the weU-to-do-ness of the owners b} T the size of the dnnghlils, and the manner in which muck is cared for. In fact, the muck heap may be regarded as the bank account of the cultivator. When we see a large heap, carefully and neatly banked up and covered with soil, we do not require to be told by anyone that the owner of the heap has clean, well-tilled land, luxuriant crops, iinds a ready market at more than average prices for his produce, and is always home early on market days with a good load of muck. The muck heap that' tale unfolds, and hints, too, of a thrifty household, regulated by intelligence, industry, and economy. But although the successful imudcet gardener is untiring in his endeavours to obtain manure, how few —how* very few r -—of our farmers evince any taste for muck. This is much to be regretted, for without a positive love of that—to dwellers in cities—unsavoury compound —no man can ever become a successful cultivator. "Where good crops are raised without

manure no credit is due to the farmer. Tiio credit belongs to soil and season, It is the adaptation of the crop to the soil, and the j id.cions application of manure to bo h tea-' is the test of skill, on the part of the cultivator. When Liebig first propounded his celebrated “mineral theory,” it was said by some visionary enthusiast that “ the time would come ivheo a farmer could carry as much manure in his waistcoat pocket as would do for an acre of ground.” • Notwithstanding the truth contained in the so-called “ mineral theory,” that day has not yet at rived, and, we fear, is still a long" way off. The nutrition contained in 281 h of hay might, by chemical means, be extracted, and would occupy only a small space in a lady’s thimble, but the horse or cow fed on sncli a concentrated article would assuredly die—the natural formation of the stomachs of those animals requiring bulk as well as nutrition. Nay, more, it is essential that the nutrition contained in the bulk should be minutely diffused throughout the mass, so as to enable the animal system to assimilate the nutritive part. The same tiling holds good of soils. Vegetable matter giving bulk is just as necessary a part of manure to soils as is the indispensab'e mineral constituents ; indeed, the former is requisite to render the latter available. And so it comes that muck—good, short, old-fashioned, and natural muck —is still the thing after all. Bones and superphosphate guanos are excellent auxiliaries, yet they arc not a direct substitute for muck. It is a well-known fact that those farmers who are most careful in collecting and applying muck are the very best customers of the artificial manure merchants. The shoemaker said there was “nothing like leather ;” we say there is nothing like muck.