The importance of getting all he can and saving all he gets, 

 to be used in the most economical and judicious way, cannot 

 be too strongly urged. All animal and vegetal)le substances 

 are valuable and should Ije carefully gathered and added to the 

 compost heap. Meadow muck and some kinds of salt marsh 

 should be dug- in dry seasons, in quantities to last for several 

 years, for the longer it lias heeu dug the more vahial)le it 

 becomes 



The barn cellar and yard, together with the hog's pen, 

 should be sufficiently supplied to absorb and liold the urine 

 fnmi the cattle and no more. Tlie process of composting can 

 be more profital)ly conducted in the field where it is to be used, 

 than in the cellar or yard, as the treading of cattle interferes 

 witii the process of fermentation in a compost heap, and le- 

 quiring less labor to manipulate when in the field. 



Your Committee are aware of the preponderance of authority 

 for keeping all manures under cover away from the air, sun, 

 rain and snow, but we venture the assertion that a compost 

 heap, made up of suitable materials and properly pi-epared, 

 gains more than it loses by exposure to those influences. 



It is better that a compost heap should be made up in the 

 fall, at least four feet high, and the larger the better, in a 

 com[)act form, eitiier round or square, always commencing with 

 a layer of muck or soil, then of staltle nuxnure, sea-kelp or 

 some substance that will produce fermentation, such as fish 

 ofial, or fish pumace, then another layer of muck ; any refuse 

 vegetable substance may be added with the muck, in alternate 

 layers with the manure, until the heap is completed. The top 

 layer should be of muck. The manure in the heap should be 

 in proportion of one-third, or half, to the whole, according to 

 the strength of it. Such a heap will soon be in a state of 

 fermentation, and (like the little ieaven hidden in a measure of 

 meal,) will continue its work through the winter, until the 

 whole mass l)ecomes manure of equal value with the portion of 

 stable manure first applied. 



This heap would be in suitable condition to be forked over in 

 March, and at intervals of two weeks for the second or third 



