80 



ORANGE CULTURE. 



Mix these ingredients with the water, adding the lime, 

 ashes, and land plaster last of all. 



Place in the pen a layer of muck, dirt, or sawdust, about 

 three inches thick ; then add the materials to be rotted, straw, 

 grass, leaves, sawdust, etc. ; wet them thoroughly with the liquor 

 from the vat, well stirred before using; then add another layer 

 of muck and wet that, and so keep on, alternating muck and 

 trash until the pen is full, wetting each layer as you proceed. 



Your pen should have a roof, as stated elsewhere ; and this 

 is a very important matter, and one especially insisted on by Mr. 

 Bonner in his patented formula given above. 



Repeat this wetting every four or five days, first making 

 holes with a crow-bar Avorked back and forth, and then pouring 

 the liquid from the vat freely over the whole pile. 



In fifteen days the manure will be in perfect condition, well 

 rotted and fine ; heat will be generated in one week, and should 

 it seem too great, may be moderated by the use of water. Do 

 not be sparing of the liquor at the time of first piling the heap. 



In this formula, it may be noted that substances known to 

 be antagonistic are brought together — ashes and hen guano, lime 

 and stable manure — yet here their mutual destroying propensi- 

 ties are conquered, and in achieving this desirable result lay Mr. 

 Bonner's patent. 



Let us look into the chemical action that takes place 

 among these various materials, and see how he explains it. 



The fermented liquor starts the heat, assisted by the lime. 

 The lime being a hydrate is caustic, and a re-arrangement of the 

 particles takes place, owing to the eagerness of the lime for car- 

 bonic acid, which is generated immediately the heat begins. 

 Ammonia is formed from the ingredients of the heap, but first 

 from the liquor in the vat. The formation is also hastened by 

 the lime and potash ; the saltpetre also liberates nitric acid. 

 Ammonia, though gaseous, exerts a mysterious effect of its own 

 in the heap, and greatly assists decomposition. 



But it may be asked w^hy the lime and potash do not set the 

 ammonia from the heap. Such would be the case in an ordinary 



