Q8 COMPOSTS. [FEB. 



this I have found by experience is wrong. For 

 the fermentation raised in the compost is not 

 strong enough to penetrate these thick layers, 

 especially those of clay, or strong earth ; for after 

 the rest have sufficiently fermented, and the com- 

 post is turned, these layers rise almost as whole as 

 when first laid, and must be broken by hand, to mix 

 them with the rest of the compost ; whence arise 

 two inconveniences ; one, an extraordinary ex- 

 pence of labour ; and the other, that twice or thrice 

 turning is sometimes necessary to dissolve these 

 large pieces ; and as a new fermentation is excited 

 every time the compost is turned, the strength of 

 the manure is greatly wasted before it is laid upon 

 the land, where it is then incapable of raising any 

 considerable fermentation, which is one of the 

 principal uses of manure. 



" The best way, therefore, of making compost, 

 is not in thick layers ; but after the ground is 

 marked out for the compost, to lay the several ma- 

 terials, after being well broken, in heaps round the 

 space marked out for the compost-heap ; and to 

 place a man between each two heaps, to throw the 

 manure spreading upon that space. In this man- 

 ner the compost-heap will soon be raised to the in- 

 tended height, and the several sorts of manure 

 being thus well mixed, the whole will soon begin 

 to ferment, and will incorporate as fully in two 

 months, as the same manures, placed in layers in the 

 usual way, will in four or five. The owner, there- 

 fore, in making such compost, should not prepare 



them 



