70 ESSEX SOCIETY. 



with muck or earth, so that the ammonia shall not escape. In 

 making a compost, you may use one load of dung to three or 

 four of muck, just in proportion to the strength of the manure. 

 In warm weather, with twice faithful forking over, your com- 

 post will be ready for use in six or eight weeks, (and this is 

 timely for use in the autumn,) but it is always essential that 

 the peat should be thoroughly decomposed. Such a compost 

 on loamy, gravelly, and sandy soils, is better than clear manure 

 for crops of corn, potatoes, vegetables of any sort : and for rye, 

 no manure surpasses it. 



But if you want a compost that will make your fields rejoice 

 with a luxuriant harvest, and that will be permanent in its ef- 

 fects, to the muck and manure add ashes in the proportion of 

 twenty-five or thirty bushels to a cord of compost. But wood 

 ashes and leached ashes are too dear. That is true. And all 

 the manure we purchase in our county costs as much, or more, 

 than in any other locality in the Union. It becomes us then, 

 to be more saving, and make the most of our resources. The 

 value of peat ashes, compared with wood ashes, has not been 

 ascertained — but peat abounds with us, and a cord of peat will 

 yield more ashes than three cords of wood, if properly pre- 

 pared and burnt. 



The farmer whose practice has been referred to, has burnt 

 peat toppings, imperfectly dried peat, stumps and sods, for the 

 sake of the ashes, which have been mixed with his compost, 

 and he thinks with decided good effects. When burnt in large 

 heaps, there is a quantity of charcoal left, which, in the opinion 

 of many competent judges, is the most valuable of all fertiliz- 

 ers, and as far as our observation goes, it has not been over esti- 

 mated. It can be made with us as cheap as any where else. 

 An acre of peat will produce four or five hundred cords of 

 fuel ; in our peat meadows, we have at our doors, mines more 

 valuable than those of California. How rich and how happy 

 would the farmers of our county be, if they would be content 

 to use and enjoy the blessings Heaven has lavished upon them. 



The committee will not extend their remarks, but the sub- 

 ject of composting manures deserves the attention of farmers, 

 and is sure to reward them for all their eff'orts. There are many 



