7 g SCIENTIFIC AGRICULTURE 



mixing these that a valuable fertilizer will be formed, 

 and no important constituents escape. Such mix- 

 tures of raw material must be kept moist, but must 

 not be exposed to rains that will dissolve out soluble 

 salts. On every farm or plantation properly man- 

 aged, all such substances will be preserved and re- 

 turned to the soil. 



174. Pendleton, in his valuable work on "Scien- 

 tific Agriculture," gives good directions for such a 

 compost-heap, as follows : " A layer of stable-ma- 

 nure six inches thick, with a good sprinkling of 

 ground phosphate over it ; then a layer of cotton- 

 seed three inches thick (previously saturated with 

 water), and then another sprinkling of superphos- 

 phate, say half an inch thick ; then a layer of stable- 

 manure, and so on until the heap is completed, 

 which should be conical in form. Over the whole 

 heap, when sufficiently large, apply several inches of 

 dry clay soil, if you choose, which will absorb every 

 particle of the escaping ammonia. If, however, this 

 crust should become so saturated as to allow it to 

 escape, an additional coating of soil can be ap- 

 plied." 



175. If the cotton-seed and superphosphate are 

 not on hand, use, with the stable-manure, the sweep- 

 ings of the yard, old mortar, leached ashes, bones, 

 scrapings from poultry-houses and yards, swamp 

 muck, the earth from old ponds, and any and every' 

 kind of waste matter that is usually thrown away or 

 hauled off that, it may not become offensive. Such 



