26 HAMPSHIRE AGEICULTUEAL SOCIETY. 



ing four weeks, receives as before, all the fertilizing substances tbat 

 accumulate in the washroom and kitchen. This process is continued 

 during the summer and fall, until snow covers the ground, and then 

 I call my heap finished, only as it continues to receive during the 

 winter the washings, slops, &c., from the house. 



This manure I have usually applied to corn land but never expect- 

 ing to make any written statement as to it fertilizing qualities I have' 

 not tested it as methodically as I otherwise should have done. I shall 

 state however, that I have tried it by the side of good barn manure, 

 and by the side of good hog yard manure, and that it produces a 

 heaver growth of corn than either. I noticed particularly this season, 

 that where I manured corn in the hill with my compost and hog yard 

 manures, a load of each being deposited side by side, on equally good 

 land, that corn grown over the compost manure was the most vigor- 

 ous, darker colored, and produced quite as large a crop in harvest 

 time, as that gi'own over the hog-yard manure. 



I have tried it also in the hill for potatoes and find it fully equal 

 to the best hog-yard manure. I claim for this manure the following 

 advantages : 



First it is cheap. Horse manure alone is a miserable- fertilizer, 

 and this excepting the wood ashes is the only substance of any value, 

 that enters into the composition. Combined in the v/ay stated, it 

 helps to form a valuable manure. Loam and washings from the road 

 side, cost nothing but the labor of getting them. All the refuse sub- 

 stances around the house, cellar and yard, are got rid of as nuisances 

 and converted to a valuable purpose. The wood ashes loose nothing 

 of their value combined in this way, but rather are rendered more 

 useful by imparting their virtues to other substances, making a com- 

 post more fertilizing than ashes could be alone. 



Again, as a matter of cleanness and convenience, this compost heap 

 is of great advantage. How often do we see around farm houses 

 and farm yards, accumulations of substances rendering the premises 

 filthy and unsightly. The compost heap receives all these otherwise 

 useless accumulations and greedily drinks in all the slops and wash- 

 ings from the kitchen and washroom, that otherwise would be form- 

 ing dirty and off'ensive drains about the premises ; but in this way, 

 they are fitly and economically disposed of. 



With the best wishes for the prosperity of the Hampshire Agricul- 

 tural Society, I submit these statements to your consideration, and 

 subscribe myself, 



Yours, truly, 



DAVID RICE, 



Pres. Edward Hitchcock, 



Ezra Ingram, 



Liwra Green. 



