30 MANURES. 



the escape of the gaseous matter into the atmosphere; as a 

 quantity of earth thrown over the matter in which the fer- 

 mentation is going on, will check its violence and arrest its 

 gaseous products, which will be imbibed by the soil, and after- 

 wards yielded to plants in such proportion as the wants of 

 vegetation may require. 



Fermentation, that destroyer of all organic conformation, is 

 not to be feared by the farmer, if it be carried on in the pre- 

 sence of earth, which fixes and secures the gases as fast as 

 they are liberated. In the composite-hill [compost-heap] the 

 whole animal or vegetable structure may be dissolved, and 

 leave behind no trace of existence, without the least waste of 

 the principles of fertility. 



We may go farther and state that complete decomposition is 

 desirable in this case, which is so much to be avoided in the 

 farm-yard; because putrescent matter can only become vegeta- 

 ble food by its resolution into primary parts, and if this be 

 effected by any preparatory step, the young crop receives the 

 full and immediate benefit. The compost manure is carried to 

 the field ready to give out its richness on the very first call, 

 and to supply the nascent radicle [young root] with a copious 

 share of nourishment. 



The putrefactive process may be carried on in the presence 

 of pure earth only, or of earth intermingled with fibrous 

 roots, or lastly in the presence of peat, which is an assemblage 

 of inert vegetable matter, and compost dung-hills may be 

 formed according to this threefold method. 



The simplest of all composts is a mixture of barn-yard 

 dung and surface-mould taken from a field under regular cul- 

 ture. The proportions between the ingredients are fixed by no 

 determinate laws, and consequently great liberty is allowed to 

 the operator. Some use two cart loads of dung to one of earth, 

 others blend them in equal quantities, and it is not unfrequent 

 to compound them two of earth and one of dung. Such is the 

 uncertainty in the composition, that almost every farmer adopts 

 a method peculiar to himself, and with equal success. 



The only error into which the farmer can run is to supply 

 such an inconsiderable quantity of soil as will be incapable of 

 imbibing the elastic and volatile particles, and thus by his own 

 mismanagement occasion a waste of the vegetable aliment. One 

 cart load of soil to two of stable dung, is the least proportion 

 which he should ever attempt to combine, and perhaps, if the 

 two were mixed in equal proportions, he would be compensated 

 for the additional labour and expense. 



Simple earth, although excellent for bottoming and strewing 

 over the pit dung near the barn, is of all materials the most 



