THE PEAT COMPOST. 215 



It is not, then, safe to trust tliese nimble workers of good — 

 these volatile agents ; but we must seize them as soon as born, 

 and bind them to our service by the help of those coarser ele- 

 ments for which they have so great an affinity, before they have 

 flitted to their kindred air. 



The second method of using muck is in the compost heap. 

 It often happens that all the dung iipon a farm cannot be used 

 at the most fitting season, and must be kept for a future occa- 

 sion ; that our barn-cellars or manure-sheds are insufficient to 

 contain what is made during the season. Much care is there- 

 fore required to prevent its being wasted by fermentation or 

 from the effect of water. Composting with muck is a most 

 effectual mode of preserving the manure, and of adding to its 

 most valuable fertilizing principle. 



The following method of making peat compost is given in a 

 treatise on peat earth, as inserted in a valuable work on Scotch 

 husbandry : — 



" Tiie peat and dung must be thrown up in alternate strata 

 into a heap about four feet and a half high, and in the following 

 proportions : — peat six inches, dung ten inches ; peat six inches, 

 dung four inches ; peat six inches, and then a thin bed of dung, 

 and cover the whole with peat. The heap should be put loosely 

 together, and then made smooth on the outside. The compost, 

 after it is made, gets into a general heat, sooner or later, ac- 

 cording to the weather and the condition of the dung ; in sum- 

 mer in ten days or sooner, in winter not perhaps for many 

 weeks, if the cold be severe. It always, however, has been 

 found to come on at last ; and in summer it sometimes rises so 

 high as to be mischievous by producing what is called fire-fann- 

 ing. In that season a stick should be kept in it in different 

 parts, to pull out and feel now and then ; for if it approaches to 

 blood heat, it should be watered or turned over ; and on such 

 occasions advantage may be taken to mix with it a little fresh 

 peat. 



" The compost may then be allowed to remain untouched 

 until within three weeks of using, when it should be turned 

 over, upside down and inside out, and all the lumps broken ; 

 then it comes into a second heat, but soon cools and is taken out 

 for use." 



In this state the whole, except bits of decayed wood, appears 



