56 MANURES. 
elevated temperature is maintained by fermentation in a 
sufficiently compact mass of the trash, and, at the same 
time, where enough of air has-access to it to permit the 
process of decomposition to go on, and the resulting car- 
bonic acid (which arrests the process by its presence) 
readily to escape—we have all the conditions supplied 
that are essential to rapid decay. The trampling of cattle 
over the mass will still further promote decomposition by 
the mixing of the ingredients, and rendering the layers 
more compact, which is especially necessary at an early 
stage of the process. 
A still greater improvement consists in first spreading a 
layer of trash upon the fioor of the yard to a depth of a 
foot and a half; covering this with a layer of muck, loam, 
or clay, and then spreading the rest of the trash as fast as 
it accumulates, and as compactly as possible upon the 
muck—the whole finally covered with stable manure. The 
lower layer of trash serves to conduct away the superfluous 
moisture that, during rain, percolates through the mass— 
the muck or clay retains the alkalies, and prevents their 
loss, and adds an important ingredient to the compost pile 
when it is ready to be hauled away. 
All waste or residual products resulting during the 
manufacture of sugar or syrup, should be carefully pre- 
served and added to the manure heap. ‘The precipitate 
which falls in the clarifying tank, or which becomes incor- 
porated with the green scum in the evaporator, when sul- 
phate of alumina is used, largely consists of gypsum or 
sulphate of lime, which is equal, bulk for bulk, as a fer- 
tilizer, to the commercial article. The washings of the 
charcoal filters—charcoal dust, the ashes from the furnace 
and from other sources—should all be incorporated with the 
decomposed trash, and annually carried out upon the fields. 
