6. A wide variety of crops may be grown on such soil. Its natural capacity is indicated by the native vegetation. The more peaty deposits will change into muck after cropping and tillage. The high percentage of nitrogen available in well managed muck soil makes it especially suited to crops that are used for their vege tative growth. In addition to vegetables this includes hay, especially timothy, roots and potatoes. With proper fertilization fair yields of corn may be secured. Even bluegrass has been observed to make a good growth on muck soil, presumably areas rich in lime. In the early stages of the development of muck land it is advisable to plant only the stronger feeding field crops such as hay, corn and potatoes. The tillage of the latter aids in breaking up the soil in preparation for the more delicate feeding roots of the vegetable crops. The more sensitive crops should be planted only on the best quality of muck land.

GROWING VEGETABLES ON THE MUCK LANDS

PAUL WORK

Superintendent and Instructor, Department of Vegetable Gardening, Cornell University, Ithaca, N. Y.

Though in some sections muck lands have been utilized for vegetable production for several decades, it is only recently that their usefulness has been generally recognized. In most places the swamp on the farm has been regarded as a dead loss. Of late years the movements of vegetable products have ceased to be exclusively from warmer to cooler climates. The states which supply early vegetables to the northern cities find that they cannot produce certain crops for their own use in summer and fall. Accordingly, they must look to other sections.

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For the crops which prefer a cool season, the muck lands have' proved to be peculiarly adapted, and a large share of the onions, celery and head lettuce which are used in summer, fall, and early winter are grown on these soils. Other crops are grown to a lesser extent, but greater diversification is being practiced every year. Among the additional crops are spinach-chiefly for canning beets, carrots, cauliflower, potatoes chiefly for seedand to some extent cabbage. It is often said that the latter is not solid when grown on muck, but some growers have attained excellent results.

Muck land that is fully developed is usually held at high valuations. In some sections areas have changed hanas at as much as five or six hundred dollars an acre. Rents as high as seventy dollars per acre per annum have been recorded. But muck land can be purchased at much lower figures, and one who is seeking a location should cast about for an investment where the interest charge will not be so high. It is necessary to exercise caution to avoid areas that are distant from railroad, or in which the soil is for any one of several reasons unproductive, or where the cost of reclamation would prove excessive.

EQUIPMENT

The investment in equipment for muck land vegetable production varies greatly. Some growers with relatively small areas are highly successful though their tools are few and simple, representing less than three or four hundred dollars for say ten acres. The buildings may be very simple, providing merely shelter for tools and a room for preparing products for market. Small and simple green houses are used by celery men for growing early plants. Storage houses for onions are frequently built, but this is really independent of crop production, as the gain incident to holding the crop is expected to meet the interest charges and other costs and to offer a profit in addition. Some men build more elaborate storage houses and expensive tool and work rooms, and so increase their investment rather heavily, not always with increased profit.

DRAINAGE

The care of drainage ditches on the muck land involves special consideration. Two general methods are in practice. Most growers maintain a narrow strip of sod, or rather a strip of sod which they pretend to keep within narrow limits, on each side of the bank. Thus the sides may be kept almost vertical. The other method consists in keeping the banks of the ditches shaved clean, thus allowing no harbor for weeds. Each requires about the same amount of space.

There is a growing tendency toward the use of tile drainage instead of open ditches. The latter are objectionable on account of the loss of space, often as much as 10 per cent. ; the labor of keeping them shoveled out from year to year; their interference with operations, and on account of the harboring of weeds. It has been found that where tile is well laid, placing the line on a board bottom, the plan is satisfactory, even through the fall is very slight.

Muck soils do not form clods as do the heavier upland soils. Even though the material is very light, plowing is not as easy as might be supposed. The smallest spot of rust on a plowshare is sufficient to start an accumulation of muck which prevents scouring, and before long the implement is merely dragged through the soil without turning a real furrow. Considerable care must

be exercised in selecting a plow for these lands, some modeis being much more satisfactory than others, although there is quite a little difference of opinion as to the adaptability of different makes and shapes. Some are using disc plows with a high degree of satisfaction.

FALL PLOWING AND CULTIVATION

Fall plowing is favored by some gardeners, advantages suggested being that the work is done and off the calendar before the rush of the spring months; that the land plows a bit more easily; that freezing in the furrow is useful, and that there is less trouble from weeds. On the other hand, some claim that spring plowing aids in drying out the soil more speedily.

Great emphasis is placed upon the advantage of careful preparation of the soil. A level surface is especially important on account of the delicate seeds and plants. On one of the experimental plots of the College of Agriculture, a small area was found to be deficient in yield. The situation was studied a bit, and it was discovered that a very slight depression existed at this

FIG. 353. PLANK DRAG

point. After this was filled, it was found that the difficulty had been overcome. The plank drag or float is widely used, and some employ a scraper consisting of a plank so attached to a frame that the edge acts as a blade reducing mounds and filling depressions. The roller is regarded as very valuable for compacting loose muck soils. The Acme harrow is one of the favorites for finishing.

This bulletin includes articles on the leading muck land crops, and each deal with their special fertilizer requirements.

The peculiar moisture relations prevailing in muck soils render careful cultivation no less necessary than on other soils, even though the water-holding capacity is exceptionally great. The

capillary movement is so slow that the upper soil may be suffering severely when abundance of water is to be found a few feet beneath. Thus the conservation of the moisture which exists in the parts of the soil where the roots are most highly developed is not to be neglected, and cultivation usually insures sufficiently favorable moisture conditions for high production without irrigation, although some practice artificial watering.

The maintenance of a surface mulch on muck soil is exceedingly easy. The material itself is well adapted for the purpose; in fact, the coarser muck soils, would be found effective for the mulching of other soils. Only a very light crust is ever formed, and the lightest tools are adequate. The intensive planting plans practically banish the horse cultivator on many farms, celery being the only important crop for which it is used. Wheel hoes are very widely employed. Different attachments are used at different stages of the crops, among them being sets of small discs, of light, slender teeth, mold boards which throw a considerable amount of soil to or from the row, and also blades which pass just beneath the surface, cutting weeds and leaving a fine mulch. A two-wheeled tool is best for straddling the rows, while a single wheel is better for working in the middles. When crops begin to close the middles, a single wheeled tool, known as the gooseneck, is used. The frame consists of a single bent tube, and it carries a blade which passes immediately beneath the surface.

The most widely used of the hand tools is the scuffle hoe or shove hoe, as it is commonly known. This consists of a handle, a shank, and a flat blade similar to that just described from one and one-half to three inches wide and from six to twelve inches long. The shank is riveted to the blade in such a way that it is pushed in a horizontal position ahead of the worker. This passes readily beneath the foliage and is exceedingly useful in this type of soil. Ground may be covered very rapidly. Another tool that is used for thinning and for working beneath plants in the row is a hoe which consists merely of a narrow strip of metal bent in the form of a triangle and set in a handle. An enormous amount of hand weeding is necessary for closely planted crops. Especially is this true of onions and of celery.