PLANT INDUSTRY 387 



special purpose, may come to be widely used as a substitute for 

 green manuring. Composting consists in using fungi and bacteria 

 to break down suitable mixtures of vegetable and animal wastes. In 

 the so-called Indore process, by arranging these mixtures in the 

 proper way, and by watering and turning them, to supply moisture 

 and air, the waste materials are transformed in about ninety days 

 into a finely divided humus rich in the foods required by growing 

 crops. The process can be adapted to climate by manufacture 

 either in shallow pits or low heaps. No buildings or expensive 

 plant are required, nor are pure cultures of the organisms concerned 

 necessary, as they occur everywhere. 'Compost making by rule 

 of thumb is as old as agriculture itself.' (Ministry of Agriculture 

 1937.) On this basis it has been used for centuries by the Chinese, 

 who have evolved an intensive system of agriculture to meet a 

 population density unparalleled in Europe (Hall 1936). Much of 

 the pioneer work of elucidating the underlying scientific principles 

 was done at Rothamsted. The application of composting to 

 African agriculture was directly due to the remarkable success 

 obtained by Sir Albert Howard at the Institute of Plant Industry, 

 Indore. Confronted with the problem of obtaining a continuous 

 and adequate supply of manure for the small Indian cultivator, 

 in a region where cattle dung is generally used as fuel, he evolved 

 the so-called Indore method. 



Howard and Wad ( 1 93 1 ) have described the various processes 

 in detail in their volume on the waste products of agriculture, and 

 Howard (1935) has described the applications of the Indore 

 method to conditions in Africa and in other parts of the world. 

 The difficulty with the average native cultivator in Africa is that, 

 so long as shifting cultivation is possible, he will not take the trouble 

 to carry out the regular watering and turning required in the 

 Indore process; moreover, in many areas the lack of water renders 

 the operations difficult or impossible. The method has, therefore, 

 had to be modified to suit local conditions. Experiments with 

 modifications of the Indore process were already in progress during 

 1933 at each of the local Native Council seed farms in Kenya 

 (Kenya 1933, D.R., p. 109), and the department of agriculture 

 issued a bulletin on the subject (Beckley 1934b). An interesting 

 experiment was carried out in 1935 at Embu in Kenya by Mr. 



