290 On Artificial Compost, 



Art. XIII. On Artificial Compost. By W. R. Y. 



Scarce any farm can provide for its own tillage; and 

 when the farmer has recourse to artificial manure, the gar- 

 dener of necessity must be often distressed to conduct his 

 department with credit to himself, or with profit to his em- 

 ployer. Having experienced this difficulty, I learned to eco- 

 nomise the means within my reach ; and if the result, adopted 

 for some years by myself, be considered of any use, let it be 

 inserted in your valuable Magazine : if thought useless, let it 

 be destroyed without hesitation, and without apology. 



In my melon yard are four pits, 1 8 feet square, and 4-§- feet 

 deep, each holding three waggon loads of bark. In the autumn 

 I riddle over the bark, and, with the riddled part, refill two 

 of them : the other two I refill with dead leaves, treading them 

 down, and leaving them up-heaped, like a hay stack. Upon 

 New-year's-day I prepare the bark-pits for forcing aspara- 

 gus, radishes, rhubarb, and sea-kale, placing the glass over 

 the pits. On the 1st of February I level the leaves, add 

 some compost soil, and place over these pits the glass lights, 

 planting potatoes, rhubarb, and kale. These crops being used 

 by May-day, I again riddle the bark with a coarse sieve, and 

 form a long ridge with the leaves, covering the same with what 

 mould comes from the bark riddlings; and upon this ridge, 

 with the bark mould and a trifle of cucumber compost, I ob- 

 tain the finest cucumbers and vegetable marrow. The leaves, 

 &c, of the melon and cucumber yard are all turned together 

 once or twice during the autumn and winter; and from this 

 heap I am duly supplied with the very best compost for bal- 

 sams, geraniums, capsicums, and many other green-house 

 plants. 



The expenses of this process will of course vary in differ- 

 ent districts ; with me it is trifling. The bark costs about 11., 

 and the leaves are collected in two days by my gardener, two 

 labourers, and a cart and two horses. Thus, after obtaining 

 two crops, I have a remnant of one half the bark, and at least 

 three waggon loads of excellent compost, considerably more 

 valuable than the original outlay. 



The compost being proportions of strong soil used for 

 melons, rotten dung, and ditch scourings, blended with de- 

 composed vegetable substances, is admirably fitted for striking 

 geranium cuttings; and I have never seen finer celery than 

 what I this year possess in those drills which were filled with 

 this compost. The leaves are beginning to fall, and I shall 

 lose no opportunity of securing them. 



W. R. Y. 



