FERTILIZERS. 51 



Composts. We sometimes hear the question asked by farmers, &quot; What is the use of 

 composting barnyard manure? Why not take it directly from the stables to the field and 

 thus save the labor of composting it?&quot; We know of no better answer than this: Since 

 manure contains the elements of plant-food, and must be decomposed and become soluble or 

 gaseous before it can properly feed the little rootlets that are reaching out in the soil for their 

 nourishment, thus to support and promote plant growth, the sooner this decomposition is 

 accomplished, the earlier will the plant be supported, and the better its growth established, 

 instead of waiting for this process to take place in the soil, after being plowed under, which 

 sometimes requires considerable time, unless well pulverized when applied to the land; besides, 

 even then the manure is so inaccessible to the amount of air required to produce fermentation, 

 that the process of decomposition is much retarded; but when composted before being 

 applied, it is readily assimilated. Another good reason for composting might be the use that 

 can be made of the fermenting manure to produce a similar fermentation in other substances 

 mixed with it, thus utilizing for fertilizing purposes, what might otherwise be entirely 

 useless. 



The word &quot;compost&quot; signifies &quot;placed together,&quot; hence it means a compound. Alex 

 ander Hyde, of Massachusetts, thus defines it in a lecture on this subject: 



&quot;Compost is hash, 1 and as we can make hash of fish, flesh, or fowl, using for this pur 

 pose cod, halibut, salmon, or any other kind of fish; beef, pork, mutton, or any other kind 

 of meat; brahmas, dorkings, shanghais, or any other kind of fowl, using nice cuts, or the 

 refuse pieces, as economy or skill may dictate ; so we may compost out of an almost unlimited 

 number of substances. There are almost as many modes of compounding food for plants as 

 for man, and every house-wife knows that these are endless. Speaking generally, it may be 

 said that everything that has once been organized into plant or animal life, may be made to 

 go the round of life again. 



More specifically, as we generally use potatoes as the base of hash, by which to extend 

 the animal food, so we generally use muck, or some substance abounding in vegetable matter, 

 such as sods or leaf mould, as the base of the compost heap, so as to extend the more concen 

 trated animal fertilizers and render them more easily assimilated by plants.&quot; 



By the use of dry earth, muck, and other substances as absorbents, in stables, pig-yards, 

 and privy-vaults, as has been indicated in the previous pages, these manures are composted 

 and greatly improved in condition, for application to lands, besides the saving by this means 

 of much of the liquid that might otherwise be lost, and preventing the escape of ammonia 

 and other valuable gases. But as it is often desirable to compost by a different process, we 

 will consider the usual and most approved method of doing it. 



Many farmers compost their manures under the stable-floors in a barn-cellar for tkat 

 purpose, where the various manures of the farm are mixed with muck and other absorbents 

 until well fermented ; others preserve the liquid manure in tanks under the stable for that 

 purpose, and produce a valuable fertilizer in the form of ammoniated superphosphate, by 

 mixing with it ground phosphate and sulphate of lime. Perhaps the more common method 

 of composting is by making a compost heap. 



How to Construct a Compost Pile. An elevated and dry spot is generally selected 

 as the site of the compost heap, in order that it may not receive the wash from a higher 

 source and thus much of the fertilizing substance be washed away and lost. 



Boards should be placed at the bottom to prevent the liquid portion from soaking into 

 the ground, as would be the case were the soil of a sandy or gravelly nature. A layer of 

 muck or loam, from a foot to a foot and a half thick, should be placed so as to form a base 

 for the heap ; over this a layer of stable manure of equal thickness should be spread, which 

 forms the fermenting principle of the heap. This may be covered by a layer of leaves, or 

 refuse of any kind, such as straw, cornstalks, decaying vegetables, etc. If in the vicinity of 



