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his produce with the soil without c animalization/ 

 The method pursued to effect this object consists 

 simply in the concentration of the materials. 

 Chaff, chopped straw, horse -dung, excrements 

 gathered in the highways, tops and leaves of 

 turnips, peelings of yams and sweet-potatoes, and 

 all the offal of the farm, are -carefully mixed with a 

 little mould, shovelled up in small pyramidal heaps, 

 moistened, and covered with a straw thatch. I 

 also often noticed in this compost, heaps of shells of 

 mussels and snails with which most of the brooks 

 and rivulets abound, and which in all parts close 

 to the seashore may be obtained in considerable 

 quantities. The compost heaps are occasionally 

 moistened, and turned with the shovel, and thus 

 the process of decomposition proceeds rapidly, 

 under the powerful action of the sun. I have also 

 often seen the shorter process of reduction by fire 

 resorted to, when there was plenty of straw, or when 

 the manure was required for use before it could 

 have been prepared by the fermentation process. 

 The half-charred mass was in such cases, so far 

 as my own observation enabled me to judge, 

 strewed directly on the seed sown in the ground. 



I consider the treatment of this compost another 

 proof that the Japanese farmer does not care for 

 the azotized matters, and that he strives to destroy 

 all organic substances in his manure before making 

 use of it. His great object in all these is to turn his 

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