MANURES. 183 



servatioii, I have learned another fact — an important 

 one in this connection — that the raising of great crops 

 bj these composted manures (cheap in everything ex- 

 cept labor) is not a severely exhausting process to the 

 soil. Farmers who have done it for years do not 

 show worse lands than their neighbors, who have 

 growii less profitable crops, but better. 



342. The remarks I have made with regard to com- 

 posting in the field apply equally to the manures 

 composted at home, as before described, except that 

 peat need not be added. That is supposed to have 

 been mixed in sufficient quantities beforehand. Its 

 value would be greatly increased if, when drawn from 

 the yard or cellar, it were composted with lime, plaster, 

 and salt, in the proportions before named. It should, 

 however, be with dead lime (oyster-shell, or slacked), 

 not quick-lime ; and special care should be taken to 

 prevent a too rapid fermentation. The lime should 

 not be added long before the whole is to be incorpo- 

 rated with the soil ; as nothing can be more erroneous 

 than to mix lime with animal manure and leave it 

 any considerable time ^yithout attention ; nor would 

 it be well to compost it with manure to be used as a 

 top-dressing. 



ODDS AND ENDS. 



343. It is well that there should be, somewhere in 

 the vicinity of a farm-house, but a little removed from 

 the sight, a compost heap^ with materials lying always 

 near^ to enlarge it. Of the thousand things which 



