48 VEGETABLE GARDENING 



voted to market gardening there is a compost pile. Al- 

 though it is called the compost pile, it seldom contains 

 much material in addition to horse manure. This does 

 not have reference to the sod and general compost heaps 

 near most greenhouse establishments. The manure com- 

 post pile is essential because (i) manure is hauled the 

 year round and the land is generally occupied with grow- 

 ing crops when it is impossible to apply directly to the 

 soil; (2) fresh manure is too coarse to apply in large 

 amounts immediately before planting, because it cannot 

 be incorporated thoroughly with the soil; (3) fresh 

 manure induces a rank growth of stem and leaf at the 

 expense of a good crop ; (4) composting destroys trouble- 

 some weed seeds. 



Valuable data upon this subject have been published by 

 the Maryland station. The results obtained show that 



(1) when manure is allowed to ferment in piles for six 

 months no danger of distributing weed seeds is incurred ; 



(2) when manure is allowed to remain in piles, under- 

 going partial fermentation, little danger of distribution 

 is incurred. 



Although composting is essential, it should be avoided 

 as much as possible, for decomposition cannot be con- 

 trolled without some loss of plant food. It also requires 

 a large additional expenditure of labor in the extra 

 handling. 



In the management of compost heaps the gardener 

 should see that leaching and fire-fanging are controlled 

 and that the finest texture is secured. To accomplish 

 these ends it is customary to stack in rather compact, flat 

 piles not less than 4 feet deep, and covering as much area 

 as may be necessary. The piles are so deep that there can 

 be no leaching if they are built with perpendicular sides. 

 They must be watered with a hose often and freely 

 enough to prevent fire-fanging. To improve the texture, 

 the piles are turned from one to three times at conven- 



