COMPOSTING MANURE. 79 
broadcast over the surface. This top dressing is mixed 
with surface soil by the use of a horse hoe or small 
plow. The manure is thrown over all the surface 
between the trees, and not, as I have frequently no- 
ticed in different orchards, close to the body of each 
tree. 
The orchardist should have, at all times, in some 
convenient spot near his fruit trees, a compost heap. 
If it is made up of barn-yard manure and old sods 
or head lands, the longer it is kept in the heap the 
more thorough will be the decomposition, and, as a 
matter of course, the manure will be m a better 
condition for appropriation. If swamp muck is ac- 
cessible, and it can be purchased at one dollar for a 
two-horse load, it will pay to cart and compost it in 
the following way: the muck should be thrown up 
in ridges for some months before hauling to the yard 
or other convenient spot for composting. With every 
cord of muck, mix four bushels of salt and lime 
mixture, and then to every nine cords of this mixture : 
add one of barn yard manure. The whole should 
be well worked together, and put in a square heap 
until thoroughly decomposed. The mass may be 
turned over once every three months, and at each of 
these turnings, small quantities of super-phosphate 
of lime, ground bone and wood ashes should be 
added in such a way that they may be evenly dis-_ 
