THE FARMERS' REGISTER. 



221 



lute been used to a great extent, and there ap- 

 pears to be no doubt of the beneficial efl'ects; 

 and it Ibrms a Ihir presinnption, lliat the fertilizini!: 

 power ol' our compost heaps may be attributable 

 to the quantity of calcareous nitrate, furmed by a 

 due admixture of eartii and manure in our usual 

 mode of forming composts. 



" la Prussia, the nitrous earth is prepared so 

 much after the manner in which we form compost 

 heaps of manure, thai I mtit^t be excused for tran- 

 scribing the method :ir I find it in the Encyclop;c- 

 dia Londinensis. ' Five measures or parts of 

 black vegetable earth, or the earth of subterranean 

 caverns, are mixed with one measure of wood 

 or vegetable ashes, and some straw ; these arti- 

 cles, beat up with water of dunghills, or draining 

 of yards and sewers, are formed ipto walls or 

 beds, twenty feet long and three j'eet wide below, 

 two feet wide at the top, and six feet high ; they 

 are covered with light straw, and moistened from* 

 time to time, and at the end of the year are fit for 

 washing.' 



" In Malta they employ the most porous calca- 

 reous earth, mixed with straw; a layer of this 

 earth and a layer of dung alternately follow each 

 other, until they are six feet high ; this is sprinkled 

 with water from dunghills, and occasionally turn- 

 ed, it then becomes fit for washing in three years : 

 during the first year the beds are sprinkled over 

 Avith slaked lime every month. 



" In Sweden, a layer of meadow turf, ashes 

 and lime, and the draining of sewers, stables, &c. 

 are sprinkled over m a similar manner ; then a 

 layer of straw is put on, and these layers are con- 

 tinued above six feef. These beds are defended 

 from rain, and occasionally moistened with the 

 drainings of stables, &c. ; they then begin to yield 

 nitre at the end of a year, and continue to yield it 

 for ten years ; it is swept ofi' every eight days, 

 and alter each sweeping is watered as before ; 

 the remaining matter at the end of ten years 

 forms an excellent manure. 



"In the canton of Appenzel, they take advan- 

 tage of the situation of their stables, which are 

 built on the sides of mountain^, to have a trench 

 under the floor ; into this trench they cast porous 

 earth, and emptying it once in three years, thus 

 obtain a ton of saltpetre from an ordinary stable. 



•'Whoever compares these and similar modes 

 of obtaining nitre, with our common practice of 

 raising compost heaps, will be struck with the 

 coincidence, that both appear to be managed for 

 a like purpose ; and if so, that in the proportion 

 in which we raise nitrate of potash, (saltpetre,) 

 and nitrate of soda, (cubic-petre) so is the value 

 of our compost heaps, more or less; but the 

 inference to be drawn is, that we may pursue the 

 system with more accurate results by a slight at- 

 tention and observation. First then it %ouU\ 

 appear, that in collecting our calcareous earth, 

 whether it be chalk, cra^, marl, or clay, it should 

 jf possible be chosen from the north face of the 

 pit, and where it has been some time exposed ; 

 that it should be mixed in much iarirer proportion 

 to the manure than is generally pmctised ; that 

 ;t should lay in alternate layers, rising six feet 

 high ; that it should be occasionally wat'ered with 

 the water of'dunghills, drainings of yards, or 

 where this cannot be obtained, with salt and wa- 

 ter, slaked lime being occasionally added, and 

 that these heaps should have one whole summer 



or year to propagate nitre. We are also instruct- 

 ed in the use of mortar rubbish, gypsum, &c. 



" There is a practice among the smaller farm- 

 ers, who keep a few young stock and cows in 

 heavy land, of forming their compost heaps from 

 the out-holiowings of ditches, with small propor- 

 tions of wet straw from their cattle yards, in which 

 no great quantity of manure from the cattle ex- 

 ists ; and I have often been surprised that sufiici- 

 ent effect could be produced by so small an ad- 

 mixture of manure, among so much apparently 

 inert matter ; but when we consider tlial this 

 assemblage of materials from the ditches com- 

 prises the fijcings of banks, which have been 

 shaded, and the dead leaves of the fences, and 

 water washing from the surfijce soils, I am inclined 

 to attribute the good efl'ects to the production of 

 nitre by these manure heaps, and to suggest that 

 if they could be allowed more lime to collect 

 nitrogen from the atmosphere, they would be more 

 valuable. 



" It would then appear advisable in forming 

 manurq heaps, to place them at the north side of 

 a barn, near to some tank into which the drainings 

 of the yard aie collected, from whence they may 

 be watered ; and to keep them covered with light 

 s^raw, andin other respects to imitate the artifi- 

 cial formation of nitre beds above described, and 

 especially to allow the heaps a whole year; this 

 may be aflbrded by allowing them to have so 

 much calcareous and clayey compost, as to form 

 two heaps from the same quantity of manure as 

 under common circumstances would be appropriat- 

 ed to one, and I am inclined to believe that one 

 load would prove as valuable as two. I am 

 aware that the advocates for using raw manure 

 will look upon my recommendation as erroneous 

 and militating against theirviews. I will come 

 to this subject presently, and ask for a suspension 

 of judgment; at the same lime admit that rather 

 than lose the virtues of the raw manure, which I 

 have seen too frequently lavishly expended in 

 evaporation, and by drainage, that under these 

 circumstances the advocates for using it have 

 much to say in favor of the practice ; but when 

 compost heaps are formed with due attention to 

 the above observations, it will no doubt lead to 

 beneficial results. 



"The result of my observations upon chalk is, 

 that it is valuable as an addition to sand, mixed 

 lands, and loam, gravel, London clay, and most 

 especially to peat, or fibrous deposite ; and as such 

 soils are generaHy deficient in this constituent of 

 all ft;rtile lands, an addition of this to the above 

 enumerated ones affords very immediate and be- 

 neficial effects ; but in all thfe soils and strata 

 compounded of the three ; chalk, London clay, and 

 marine deposite, a sufficiency already exists in the 

 compound, and therefore on these soils its value 

 is ghiefly to be estimated by its combination with 

 other substances, so as to form chemical affinities, 

 g,nd produce other compounds. 



" Where soils are composed of chalk without 

 a due admixture of silicious matter, the epidermis 

 or outer coat of the straw is not so hard as it 

 should he. On these lands mildew is prevalent, 

 while near the sea coast where the marine deposite 

 of sand forms the principal ingredient, mildew is 

 rarely to be met with. 



" I shall he understood better if I explain the 

 nature of mildew. ' MUdcii^' is a pai'asitical plant 



