THE ART OF COMPOSTING. 



CHAPTER XXXI. 



COMPOSTS. 



There are a large variety of substances which are not pre- 

 cisely manures, but which contain more or less of valuable fer- 

 tilizing matter, that may be gathered by farmers, and mingled 

 in such a manner as to induce a process of mutual decomposi- 

 tion by which valuable plant food may be procured. The 

 art of mingling these substances, and of decomposing them 

 so that they may be used as manure, is known as compost- 

 ing. It is not much practiced in America, because farmers 

 have scarcely been brought as yet to the point of exercising 

 the strictest economy in this respect; but the time has come 

 when every available opportunity for gathering fertilizing 

 matters and converting them into food for crops* must be 

 strictly and perseveringly sought and seized. The most im- 

 portant of these are, peat; seaweed; salt marsh mud; leaves 

 and the undergrowth of woods and forests; the waste from 

 tanneries, consisting of the fleshings, hair, tan bark, and 

 leather scraps; the waste from cider mills; from breweries; 

 from starch and sugar factories; from fish packing estab- 

 lishments; from oil mills; sweepings of the streets of cities 

 and towns; ashes of various kinds; wastes from slaughter 

 houses; and in fact any waste matter which can be decom- 

 posed by the ordinary processes which the farmer can em- 

 ploy. 



To facilitate the consideration of this interesting subject, 

 and before proceeding to describe the process of composting 

 the various materials and reducing them to a fit condition 

 for use, the following table of analyses of the various mat- 

 ters referred to may be studied. 



