HOW TO FERTILIZE. 91 



per, no more than the man who leaves his store open for 

 thieves to enter and carry off his most valued stock in 

 trade. 



The compost pit prepared, the first thing to do is to put 

 in a layer of muck about six inches thick, or if muck is 

 not to be had, grass, weeds, sawdust, pine needles, pine 

 burrs, rotten sap-wood, and dead leaves will answer almost 

 if not quite as well. This supplies the humus element of 

 plant growth ; next a layer of cotton seed. This is a val- 

 uable fertilizer, especially so when thus composted, and 

 contains four per cent of nitrogen, three per cent of pot- 

 ash, and three per cent of phosphoric acid a ton of the 

 seed being worth seventy-two dollars as manure another 

 layer of muck, then one of stable manure; another of 

 green trash with muck again. These thoroughly wetted at 

 the time of piling, and worked over once or twice, will, in 

 three months' time, furnish the thrifty orange grower with 

 as fine a fertilizer for his trees as any money could pur- 

 chase, especially if, some days before applying to the trees, 

 his means permit him to whiten the ground with lime or 

 land plaster. 



The capabilities of a compost heap are, in fact, almost 

 unlimited ; it is a take all and hold all receptacle, of which 

 one may truly say " all is fish that comes to its net." 



Nothing that is subject to decay comes amiss rags, old 

 clothes, old shoes, old newspapers, trash of all sorts, kept 

 moist with liquid manure or house slops, etc. , will in a few 

 months become useful and available plant-food. 



Every animal that dies on the farm should be dismem- 

 bered and buried deep in the compost to become a valuable 

 element thereof. Lime, land plaster, ashes, poultry guano, 

 all these add vastly to the supply of plant-food furnished 

 by the compost. But be it known and heeded that ashes 

 and poultry guano should never be mixed, as the ammonia 



