108 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



profitably conducted in the field where it is to be used, than 

 in the cellar or yard, as the treading of cattle interferes with 

 the process of fermentation in a compost-heap, and requiring 

 less labor to manipulate when in the field. 



Your committee are aware of the preponderance of au- 

 thority for keeping all manures under cover away from the 

 air, sun, rain and snow, but we venture the assertion that a 

 compost-heap, made up of suitable materials and properly pre- 

 pared, gains more than it loses by exposure to those influences. 



It is better that a compost-heap should be made up in the 

 fall, at least four feet high, and the larger the belter, in a com- 

 pact form, either round or square, always commencing with a 

 layer of muck or soil, then of stable-manure, sea-kelp or some 

 substance that will produce fermentation, such as fish ofial or 

 fish pumace, then another layer of muck ; any refuse vegeta- 

 ble substance may be added with the muck in alternate layers 

 with the manure until the heap is completed. The top layer 

 should be of muck. The manure in the heap should be in 

 proportion of one-third, or half, to the whole, according to 

 the strength of it. Such a heap will soon be in a state of fer- 

 mentation, and, like the little leaven hidden in a measure of 

 meal, will continue its work through the winter, until the 

 whole mass becomes manure of equal value with the portion 

 of stable-manure first applied. 



This heap would be in suitable condition to be forked over 

 in March, and at intervals of ts\'0 weeks for the second or 

 third time, each forking over producing new fermentation, 

 thereby adding in value to the quality. The importance of 

 frequent forking over a compost^heap is often overlooked. It 

 is believed that no labor performed on a farm pays better than 

 this, and none is oftener neglected. 



The henery, privy and sink-spout should all be abundantly 

 supplied with dry earth, or meadow-muck, each having 

 proved to be perfect deodorizers, and much valuable manure 

 may thus be obtained. 



Those farmers who are located on the borders of the ocean 

 may derive great benefit from its resources. Kelp, rock- 

 weed, the. various mosses growing in the ocean, are all pow- 

 erful fertilizers, whose value may be doubled by composting 

 as described above. 



