GARDEN COMPOST 93 



either for field crops or for gardens. Manure for garden use should 

 be most carefully treated to save all its richness and to render its 

 coarse materials more readily available in soil-forming processes. 

 In short, instead of preventing fermentation, manure for garden 

 purposes should be put through a carefully controlled fermentation 

 which is involved in composting. 



Compost for Garden Purposes. The term compost signifies 

 a mixture of manurial substances and for garden use there should 

 be collection constantly made of the voiding of the animals, trim- 

 mings of vegetables, the refuse of plants as the ground is cleared, 

 the house wastes, and in fact everything of an organic nature which 

 will yield to decay, and any available mineral wastes, like ashes, 

 which contains plant food. If all these are added to the animal 

 manure and treatment adopted which will promote the proper fer- 

 mentation in it, the manure will assist in reducing the other ma- 

 terials to proper condition for garden use. 



The conditions for such fermentation are adequate moisture 

 accompanied with stirring and aeration enough to distribute the 

 action evenly throughout the mass and to bring all the materials 

 under its influence. There are numerous ways of accomplishing 

 this, and each operator will probably have his own notions about 

 their relative ease and cheapness. 



Manure Tanks. These are cemented, water-tight, excavations 

 of various sizes. A Napa county farmer built one a few years ago 

 which cost him nearly two hundred dollars, with all its appur- 

 tenances. It is thirteen by twenty and one-half feet in size, about 

 six feet deep and exceedingly well built, having cement walls and 

 floor, so as to be water-tight. The floor has a slant, inclining to a 

 well at one end, where, with the aid of a wooden pump, the juices 

 as they settle are raised to the top and poured over the mass to again 

 percolate through it. Such a cistern might, perhaps, be made for 

 less money now, but it is quite a question whether it is worth while 

 making any such investment. Loss of liquid manure by leaching 

 is prevented, but on the other hand it is apt to accumulate in such 

 quantities in the pit that, unless the pit is roofed, the addition of the 

 rainfall will result in the submergence of all the manure and this 

 excludes the air and prevents the proper fermentation. The result 

 is that there is great cost in excavating the water-logged material 

 from the tank, a large amount of heavy and disagreeable shoveling 

 and the manure not in the best condition after all. 



