34 ESSEX SOCIETY. 



quired removing, or at "odd jobs," when there was no other 

 employment for my hands and team, and finished in December. 

 It was, however, opened in January (not having frozen on top 

 during the whole winter), at the earnest entreaty of a neighbor, 

 whose horse had died, and he wished the body interred. 



The heap consists of, — 

 46 loads of strong manure from the hog yard, 

 71 " salt meadow sods, from the banks of the Merrimack, 

 8 " loam, top soil, where a road was formed, 



5 ." lime and hair from the tan pits, 



6 " decayed chips from ship yard, 

 2 " anthracite coal ashes, 



15 " potato vines, 



2 " refuse sizing from steam factory, 



2 carcasses of horses brought to the spot, 



2 hogsheads of urine from my stable tank, 

 10 " of soap-boiler's lye, hauled from Newburyport. 



The materials here used, with the exception of the manure 

 from my stable, and five loads of matter from the tan yard, cost 

 merely the labor of hauling. The heap was thrown over last 

 week, for the first time, and upon opening, with the exception 

 of about eighteen inches on the sides in thickness, which, by 

 reason of an uncommonly dry summer, were baked hard, it was 

 found in a perfect mass of decomposition, of about the consist- 

 ency of brick-layers' mortar, emitting an odor so powerful, that 

 I observed those occupied in throwing it over, eager to keep to 

 the windward. 



Of the carcasses, nothing was to be seen but the bones ; the 

 potato vines had entirely rotted; the meadow sods were hardly 

 to be distinguished from the stable manure ; and nothing re- 

 mained in the state in which it was placed there, save the coal 

 ashes, which I shall hereafter esteem, in a compost heap, as of 

 no more value than so much sand. 



The sides of the heap were thrown into the centre, and the 

 whole well mixed and thrown into a compact heap, there to re- 

 main until next spring, when I intend to spread it on the land, 

 plough it in, and plant with potatoes and corn. 



Here I have a pile of 150 loads of powerful manure, at an 



