412 TRANSACTIONS OF THE 



up on the edges, and 500 lbs. of potash, dissolved in water, poured 

 upon it. 



The heap contained 100 cubic yards, and was intended more as 

 a medium of distributing the potash, lime, and 500 lbs. of super- 

 phospate of lime afterwards added, and of forming, with the sods 

 and leather-shavings, a good retainer of ammonia in the soil. 

 Aside from the leather-shavings, a somewhat better compost could 

 have been formed by substituting peat or swamp-muck with one- 

 fifth unfermented horse-manure, and applying 50 lbs. of potash 

 to the cord, and applying the superphosphate to the plants or soil 

 separately. 



Let every fruit-raiser, each spring and fall prepare such a com- 

 post as the following, and the result of its application to trees and 

 vegetables will astonish and delight him : 



A heap of leaves, old headland sods, bog or swamp-much, peat, 

 charcoal dust, weeds, or rubbish of any kind should be placed at 

 a convenient distance from the house or stable, to receive the 

 wood-ashes; and when the soil is clayey, the coal ashes, the pot- 

 ash, soapsuds, chamber-slops, night-soil, liquid manure from the 

 stables, and all the old fish and meat brine — all the kitchen 

 slops — the bones — the refuse and spoiled meat — the carcasses of 

 animals — and especially the contents of the hen-house. All these 

 can be effectually deprived of alloflensive smell, by keeping a fresh 

 supply of the muck to cover over, whenever an escape of nitro- 

 genous matter is perceived. Applied to fruit trees, the effect of 

 such a compost is almost startling in the rapidity and hardiness 

 of growth it induces, and in the luscious and highly-colored fruit 

 such a soil will bring forth. 



And as its dark and seemingly loathsome mass swells in its pro- 

 portions, the cultivator, who knows it is but the uncouth form 

 which covers a beautiful soul, sees gorgeous flowers and golden 

 fruits emerging with the colors no mortal hand can bestow. 

 What labor or pursuit can afford such a noble delight as witness- 

 ing the product of one's own skill in moulding the rich bounties 

 of nature to higher excellence and beauty, when such delight is 

 softened by gratitude to Him who giveth the early and the latter 

 rains. 



Mr. Field related the effect of a slight covering of muck upon 

 a pile of fish, by which it was perfectly deodorized. 



Solon Robinson spoke of the New- York meadows, and other 

 vast tracts of similar land near this city, and of its small value at 

 present, and what it might be made by draining and cultivation. 



