MANURE AND FERTILIZERS. 37 



present in the pile all the time or the manure will burn 

 or grow white within the pile, and its value be injured 

 as much as if subjected to too much water ; thus, as in 

 all things, there is a happy medium. Stable manure of 

 indifferent quality, strawy, not rich in dung, containing 

 little digested or half-digested grain, not putrefactive, 

 may be started into more rapid fermentation by densely 

 piling it, and, as it is piled, watering it with a ferment- 

 ing solution. 



Fermenting Lye. The solution, or lye, may be 

 compared to horse urine, and will exert the same effect 

 in starting a like fermentation. To every ton of crude 

 stable manure apply the lye as the manure is corded up 

 in ten inch layers. The ingredients necessary to make 

 the lye to test a ton of crude stable manure need not 

 cost more than one dollar, and are : Two bushels of 

 pulverized quicklime, one bushel of land plaster, one- 

 fourth bushel of common refuse salt, three pounds of 

 saltpeter, three pounds of muriatic acid, stirred in with 

 three barrels of rich barnyard water. The lye can be 

 made in oil or whisky barrels, and, after making, should 

 stand several hours before application. Barnyard water, 

 the drainage from manure, is almost as important as 

 the solid parts, as, to a considerable extent, it is a 

 diluted solution of urine, the very agent which the 

 preparation is intended to represent in its action. The 

 larger the bulk the more perfect will be the action 

 of the lye. 



Compost. Compost, in an agricultural sense, is 

 understood to be a compounded manure of the varied 

 collections of the garden, as crude stable manure, swamp 

 mud, leaves, weeds, swamp grass, sea grass, old sods, 

 king crabs, jelly fish, fresh or salt fish, tobacco stems, 

 pumice from cider mills, waste wool, refuse from soap 

 factories, tallow waste from slaughter houses, and any 

 vegetable or animal product. The compost pile, if made 



