GARDEN COMPOST. 99 



localities, have, or subsequently receive, moisture enough 

 to start active fermentation and will "fire-fang" and be- 

 come nearly worthless in a very short time during our 

 hot summer. Such loose piles thrown to the weather in 

 the rainy season will be largely leached of their soluble 

 matters wherever rainfall is considerable. Probably the 

 easiest way to preserve manure in California is to allow 

 it to lie in the corral during the summer, for there it is 

 free from leaching rain, usually from June to November, 

 and all its coarse straw, etc., dry and brittle, is reduced 

 almost to powder by the tramp of the animals. If then 

 this fine material is scraped up, spread and plowed in at 

 the beginning of the rainy season it will readily ferment 

 in the soil and all its value be retained, if the applica- 

 tion is made to a heavy soil under a good rainfall. The 

 winter-made manure should not be allowed to lie in the 

 corral to be leached by drenching rain. It should be gath- 

 ered frequently and applied fresh to the land so that the 

 leachings may be plowed in while there is still moisture 

 enough in the soil to make the process safe and efficacious. 

 This easiest way to handle animal manures in California 

 may do for ordinary farm crops, if the soil is heavy enough 

 and moist enough to receive unfermented manure without 

 danger to the crop from loss of moisture, but it is not the 

 best way to handle manure, either for field 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 fer- 

 mentation which is involved in composting. 



Compost for Garden Purposes. The term compost sig- 

 nifies a mixture of manurial substances and for garden 

 use there should be collection constantly made of the void- 

 ing of the animals, trimmings 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 



