COMPOST. 31 



Jersey, may be seen pear trees of luxuriant growth, 

 producing great quantities of the finest fruit, which 

 liave been manured, as he assured me, only with super- 

 phosphate of lime. 



COMPOST. 



There is nothing in his range of labors that gives 

 the genuine lover of finiit and vegetable growth such 

 complete satisfaction as the increase in size and excel- 

 lence of his compost-heap. In it the cultivator is 

 storing up his chemicals for Nature's laboratory, and 

 is thus prepared to furnish to her the elements which 

 shall come forth the purest gold. Uptold wealth lies 

 hidden in its dark and unseemly mass, and at the 

 magic touch of the great enchanter, shall burst ^forth 

 in forms of wondrous beauty. In it his imagination 

 Bees hidden the subtle essences which will ripen the 

 golden pear, color the cheek of the melting peach, 

 give lustre to the green foliage and beautiful growth 

 of the trees on which his care is bestowed ; and thus 

 he cheats his senses of the loathsomeness which 

 appears to others. . '^ " 



No single substance or kind of manure contains all 

 the virtues or manurial requisites for tree or fruit 

 growth ; and a compost which contains all or most of 

 the fertilizing agents, will be always found in practice 

 to produce the finest growth and fruit. 



Excellent results in the growth and fruiting of pear 

 trees have been obtained from a compost formed in 

 the following manner : Feat or swamp muck, and the 

 tough sods of an old headland, were laid down in a 

 layer about six inches thick, and twenty-five feet 



