ESSAY 



ON COMPOST MANURES. 



BY L . W E T H E E E L L . 



Of all the numerous topic; that concern the tillers of the soil — 

 those who have entered into partnership with Nature, in order to 

 multiply and increase the products of the earth upon which man and 

 his various domestic animals are to subsist — there is none, perhaps, 

 that more intimately relates to their ^^I'osperity, and ultimate success, 

 as farmers and gardeners, than that which the Executive Committee 

 of the Hampshire Agricultural Society projjosed in their last annual 

 Show-Bill for an essay, to wit, " Compost Manures." 



Homer, who lived many hundred years before the Christian Era, 

 mentions an old king who was found manuring his fields with his 

 own hands. Whether this circumstance gave application of the word, 

 manure, from manus, signifying the hand, does not belong to the 

 essayist to determine, neither is it of any consequence in the present 

 discussion, because every farmer as well understands the meaning of 

 the word as now popularly used by writers and speakers, as he would, 

 were the question of its etymological derivation settled beyond a 

 query, by the most learned English or German philologist. 



Compost, in agriculture, is a mixture or composition of various 

 manurial substances for fertilizing land. Compost Jlanure may, 

 therefore, consist, as it often does, of s mixture of vegetable and ani- 

 mal substances with lime or other earthy matter, substances, or com- 

 pounds. 



Before proceeding to the discussion of the subject under consider- 

 ation, it may be well to review, briefly, its past history, in order that 

 all who feel interested, may be able to mark the progress, made 

 through a long series of ages. 



