THE WELL-TEMPERED COMPOST-HEAP 



woods, in the hollows, leaf-mould or "woods-earth," as it is 

 sometimes called, may be collected. It may also be made at 

 home after this fashion and is quite as good, if not better 

 than the original: 



TO MAKE LEAF-MOULD 



In the autumn dig a pit, some three feet deep and as long 

 and as broad as one pleases. Into this pit throw the fallen 

 leaves and trample them down. Throw in several pails of 

 water. Follow this by another layer of leaves well trampled 

 down, and that by another immersion. Go on in this fashion 

 until the pit is full or the leaves or the gardener exhausted. 

 From time to time, while the leaf -mould is "cooking" it should 

 have pails of water bestowed on it. The leaves should not be 

 allowed to become dry. In about a year, this confection will 

 be ready for use. 



Lilies especially relish leaf-mould so do all plants which 

 dislike barn manure. Azaleas, rhododendrons, and other 

 broad-leaved evergreens are fond of it. For mulching, for 

 potting it is very valuable. Trees can be grown when a soil 

 of pure sand is enriched by leaf-mould. And, as a piece of 

 economy, it is an infinitely better disposal of the dead leaves 

 than the usual custom of burning them. 



BARNYARD MANURE 



Garden-making without barnyard manure is as tedious as 

 the strawless brick-making was to the Israelites. 



This same barnyard manure, to a modern farmer the 

 "immediate jewel" of his establishment, is a product which 

 the old-style farmer, hard-headed and canny with his pennies, 

 has always managed like the veriest spendthrift. Manure 

 thrown in an open heap in the barnyard, after the usual custom 



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