106 ON EXPERIMENTS ON MANURES. 



the materials. The heap has been saturated from time to time 

 with ten hogsheads of soap boiler's lye, and two hogsheads of 

 urine from my stable tank. The heap was commenced in Au- 

 gust, 1844, and increased from time to time as the materials re- 

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

 employment for my hands and team, and finished in Decem- 

 ber. 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 ex- 

 ception 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 consistency 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 hard- 

 ly to be distinguished from the stable manure ; and nothing 

 remained 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 



