ESSEX SOCIETY. 69 



that he applied his manure to the surface and harrowed it well 

 in, and in cultivating corn and other hoed crops, kept a level sur- 

 face, without hilling up, as it is barbarously called, and more 

 barbarously practised. This farmer's corn, planted in hills four 

 feet apart, was judged to yield sixty bushels to the acre. His 

 potatoes, planted with compost, mostly escaped the rot, while 

 those planted on long and unfermented manure suffered much 

 from it. His onions yielded well, while on stable dung, mussel- 

 bed, and the manures usually applied, the crop, owing to the 

 drought, was in many places, almost a failure. For carrots, 

 beets and turnips, this compost has been found equally effectual ; 

 nor are its effects less lasting. 



This farmer, who finds himself so well compensated that he 

 does not ask for the Society's premium, has made within the 

 last eighteen months, more than five hundred loads of compost 

 manure. At times, when the ordinary work of the farm does 

 not press, he employs his laborers and team in carting into his 

 barn and swine yards, swamp muck and peat ; this, after lying 

 some months and imbibing the droppings of his stock, is 

 ploughed up, and after farther exposure to their tramping and 

 dropping, is thrown into heaps, where it lies ready to be carried 

 to the field. It is thought indispensable to have the muck thor- 

 oughly rotten and decomposed. A piece of peat as large and 

 hard as a brick, is as valueless for fertilizing purj)oses as a stone 

 of equal size ; but crumble it up, mix it with some heating 

 manure, and decompose it, and a load of peat compost is worth 

 more than a load of barn dung. When a sufficient quantity 

 of dung and urine has not been dropped in the yard upon the 

 muck, it is advisable to add more to the heap, and the farmer 

 is well paid for the additional labor of again forking over his 

 manure ; the finer and more smiffy it is made, the better it is 

 adapted to furnish food to the roots of plants. 



Another method of making compost is, to cart directly into 

 the field where it is intended to use it, your swamp muck or 

 peat, and there compost, by making first a layer of muck about 

 four inches in depth, then a layer of dung, — horse dung is de- 

 cidedly the best for this purpose, — and so on, till your heap is 

 four or five feet in height, being careful to cover the whole 



