Economical Management of Materials, Sj-c, on the Farm. 373 
but In that of efficient and lasting construction, would hold 
their own against many of those brick-and-mortar erections 
which cannot be said to adorn some districts of the kingdom. 
Waste substances of Farm Buildings and Roads ; useful in the 
formation of Compost-heaps. — The utilisation for manurial pur- 
poses of the waste substances collected on the farm itself, and 
also obtainable from other sources, is a subject which is of im- 
portance enough to demand a special section by itself. This 
will be found to possess practical features more numerous and 
more important than many at the first blush of the matter would 
be disposed to admit. I here simply refer to the subject to 
show that, if kept in view, it will be another inducement to have 
the farm-buildings and, indeed, the farm throughout kept in the 
most orderly fashion. Those who know the value of " order," 
and the influence it exercises on the morale of those engaged 
in any work in which it is observed, have a difficulty to believe 
otherwise than that a disorderly farm cannot well be a carefully- 
cultivated one. Taking even the most kindly and charitable 
view of the case, one will be compelled to believe that there will 
be loss somewhere ; certainly there will be of time, and, in the 
case I have just referred to, there will be beyond doubt decided 
loss of material. For, even admitting that the materials which 
are allowed to litter about the buildings, roads, &c., of a dis- 
orderly farm are of no value in the way I have indicated in the 
preceding paragraph, it will scarcely be denied that much of 
them may be, and would be, found useful in a high degree in, 
the formation of the compost-heap. I fear, however, that it 
must be said that but too many of our farmers are not fully 
alive to the value of the compost-heap, as in their own pecuniary 
interests I believe they ought to be. Nor if they are ready to 
admit its value as a manurial help, do they seem aware that 
they have at command so large a supply of materials for its 
composition as they in reality have. But they require looking 
for, in some cases " hunting up," to use a graphic phrase, although 
it may be taken as a rule that they lie ready enough to hand, 
but too ready in one sense, as they are but eyesores to those 
who have the love of order developed, if, indeed, they do not 
further appeal but too strongly to another of the senses, as 
suggestive of anything but the "balmy gales of Araby the 
blest." Worth looking for they are, and the trouble of collect- 
ing and storing them up will be abundantly repaid by the neat 
and trim look of the farm-buildings and their surroundings, 
even if no other benefit be obtainable. Nearly every kind of 
organic matter in a decaying condition, or which is capable 
of comparatively speedy decay, is useful for the formation of a 
compost-heap. Some substances are specially valuable ; and if 
