FOR MOWING AND PASTURE LANDS. 



161 



which the richest gases are formed. Such a compost heap, 

 with an addition of loam and mud, would be invaluable for a 

 top dressing. But though in most cases all these substances 

 cannot be procured, many of them can, and should be saved 

 by every one who is desirous of improving his land. Those 

 who are near the sea, or near the market, can procure an abun- 

 dance of fish to add to the compost. Nothing is better for soils 

 than this. A little lime added to the heap, causes its rapid 

 and thorough decomposition. Ashes should also be added. 

 When additions of manure are made, they should be covered 

 with mud or loam, to prevent v/aste. 



We need not enter more minutely into the details of form- 

 ing the compost heap. It is sufficient to say, in a word, that 

 every thing capable of fermentation, should be added to it. The 

 lower layer should be of loam or mud. Nothing is more com- 

 mon among farmers, on the death of a horse or any other ani- 

 mal, than to throw the body away. It is estimated by some, 

 that the body of a single horse, when divided and mixed with 

 peat mad and loam, will make a compost worth fifteen or twen- 

 ty cords of the best and richest manure. This is, perhaps, too 

 liigh an estimate, but animal substances ferment rapidly, or 

 rather they may be said to putrefy without fermenting, so quick 

 is their decomposition. If leaves, grasses, moss, straw and 

 other substances of like nature, are used, lime will be indispen- 

 able, in causing their rapid decay. When these are well fer- 

 mented, the heap should be thrown over, and if made long and 

 narrow, so as to expose the greater surface to the air, it will be 

 better. Whenever such a compost has been used as a top dres- 

 sing, it has produced the most astonishing effects. Many ex- 

 periments have shown that this is the best way of using such a 

 compost heap. In the fertile county of Hertford, in England, 

 it is seldom used in any other way. It cannot be too highly 

 recommended. 



Animals fed on rich food make far the most valuable manure. 

 This will serve to shov/ why the manure from the sty is so 

 fertilizing. Swine are fed on a great variety of rich food. The 

 actual profit of raising them, arises mainly from the amount of 

 substances they will mix together and make into good manure. 

 21 



