102 MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



cal qualities, excepting that there is less activity and odor in the 

 peat. The late Mr. Phinney, of Lexington, declared that if two 

 cords of peat were mixed with one cord of cow manure, the mixture 

 was fully equal to three cords of fresh cow manure. 



The weight of authority seems to indicate that one ton of manure 

 from the barn, will decompose from three to six tons of muck, 

 but it is better to use a larger proportion of animal manure. Com- 

 plaints have sometimes been made that the use of peat and muck 

 produced sour and meadow grasses. But if so, they must have 

 come from applj'ing the peat before it was properly ripened and 

 sweetened by age and decomposition, without which little effect is 

 seen. 



Peat must be used discreetly, and the following hints may not 

 be inappropriate : 



1st. As a rule, peat should be dug several months before it is 

 taken to the barn or compost heap. The weight to be carried will 

 then be lighter and its absorbent quahties greater. 



2d. The old rule, of keeping the compost through two summers 

 and one winter (or for two years) before use, stands good today, 

 where the best economy is exhibited. Time — a long time — is 

 essential to its decomposition and it should not be used until de- 

 composed. 



3d. If possible, protect occasionally the compost by rough boards, 

 from excessive flooding by rains. And if peat is placed under the 

 barn, let it be two feet thick and so placed as to catch all the liquids 

 from the stalls, such liquids being one-sixth part more valuable 

 than the solids. Add an}' waste vegetable matter, as often as may 

 be, and see that the drainage from the stable does not rob the com- 

 post. 



4th. Fermentation must be encouraged, but the pile must not be- 

 come fire-fanged or overheated. When found to be at blood 

 heat, turn it over or water it. 



Few persons realize that in the decay of animal or vegetable mat- 

 ter the same amount of heat is thrown out as there would be if the 

 same matter was consumed by fire ; and the heat is just in propor- 

 tion to the rapidity of the decay. In warm weather, a compost 

 heap may become heated in ten or fifteen days. It is well, there- 

 fore, to lay a few sticks into the heart of it, which can be withdrawn 

 and the heat tested, as occasion may require. 



More than a century ago, Lord Meadowbank gave directions as 



