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XII. — j^n Essay on making Compost Heaps from Liquids and 

 other Substances ; ivritten on the evidence of many years' expe- 

 rience. — To which the Prize of Ten Sovereigns was awarded in 

 July, 1839. — By James Dixon, Esq. Secretary to the Man- 

 chester Agricultural Society. 

 The force and power of an agriculturist to produce good crops 

 mainly depends on the manures he can command ; and how to 

 derive the greatest possible benefits from his immediate resources 

 is one of the most useful subjects that can engage his attention. 

 The English Agricultural Society having offered a premium for 

 the best mode of making compost heaps, I venture to forward the 

 Committee my ideas on this most important branch of rural 

 management ; and in doing this I shall state the course I have 

 pursued in this particular for many years, and in which every 

 additional experience inclines me not to make any systematic 

 alteration. 



My farm is a strong retentive soil, on a substratum of ferrugi- 

 nous clay; and being many times disappointed in what I con- 

 sidered reasonable anticipations of good crops, I determined on a 

 new system of manuring. Though quite satisfied of the expence 

 which would necessarily be incurred by my plan, I still deter- 

 mined on its adoption. At the onset I effectually drained a 

 considerable part of my farm. My next object was how to im- 

 prove its texture at the least cost — (perhaps I may be allowed to 

 state that my holding has always been at rack-rent) ; for this 

 purpose we carted great quantities of fine sawdust and peat -earth 

 or bog ; we had so far to go for the latter, that two horses would 

 fetch little more than three tons in one day — one horse wmild 

 fetch three cart-loads of sawdust in the same time. Having brought 

 great quantities of both peat and sawdust into my farm-yard, I 

 laid out for the bottom of a compost heap a space of considerable 

 dimensions, and about three feet in depth : three-fourths of this 

 bottom was peat, the rest sawdust ; on this we conveyed daily 

 the dung from the cattle-sheds ; the urine also is conducted 

 through channels to wells for its reception, — one on each side of 

 the compost heap ; — common water is entirely prevented from 

 mixing vdth it. Every second day the urine so collected is 

 thrown over the whole mass with a scoop, and at the same time we 

 regulate the accumulated dung. This being continued for a week, 

 another layer, nine inches or a foot thick, of peat and sawdust (and 

 frequently peat without sawdust) is wheeled on the accumulated 

 heap. These matters are continuously added to each other during 

 winter, and in addition once in every w eek never less than 25 cwt., 

 more frequently 50 cwt., of night-soil and urine; the latter are 

 always laid next above the peat or bog-earth, as we think 



