SECRETARY'S REPORT. 199 



exit, with edges four or five feet high, over which all the 

 material is thrown, in layers upon the hed of the circular heap. 

 In the circle there is a passage-way left, where the carts are 

 loaded in carrying away the compost. The whole is surrounded 

 by trees, and on the side of the entrance there is a stone ash 

 house. To this compost is added all the rubbish from the 

 workshops, the barns, and of special crops, as the stalks of seed 

 roots, turnips, beets, <fec., hop vines, street sweepings, the con- 

 tents of privies, &c., such organic matters, especially, as decay 

 too slowly to have much value applied directly to the field, or 

 which decay too quickly and lose too much before they are 

 wanted, as the night soil, or substances containing the seeds of 

 weeds. Stable manure, which is brought directly upon the 

 fields and mowing lands, is never added to this compost heap. 

 To these materials only so much loam is added as is necessary 

 to hold the gaseous products of their decay, that is, the com- 

 post must never smell, and it will not, if it is all covered over 

 with earth. More earth than is necessary to effect this object 

 is of no use, and only makes a useless labor of hauling to and 

 from the heap, and loading and unloading twice over. Urine 

 is an exception, as it is sometimes brought and thrown upon 

 the compost, when it becomes necessary to accelerate the 

 decomposition of the materials. The heap is not forked over, 

 as this is too expensive, and as it lays in horizontal layers of 

 organic materials and earth, they are cut down perpendicularly 

 as they are carted off, so that the mass becomes thoroughly 

 mixed and uniform. 



Both the cisterns for liquid manure above alluded to are 

 from time to time let off into the basin in the botanic garden, 

 which lies at some distance off on a lower level, and the liquid 

 is thus distributed by means of water, over the grounds, which 

 saves all expense of cartage. Some of the urine is carried by 

 means of the barrel on wheels into the vegetable garden and 

 the experimental field, for certain plants, as cabbage, tobacco, 

 &c., and rarely upon the compost heap. 



The ashes from the many stoves of the institute, amounting 

 yearly from 150 to 200 bushels, are spread upon the meadows 

 and the poorer spots of lu<;erne. 



Gypsum is not much used, except to strew over the manure, 

 with which it reaches the fields, since in a series of years but 



