48 
VEGETABLE GARDENING 
voted to market gardening there is a compost pile. Al- 
though it is called the compost pile, it seldom contains 
much material in addition to horse manure. This does 
not have reference to the sod and general compost heaps 
used by most greenhouse establishments. The manure 
compost pile is essential because (i) manure is hauled 
the year round and the land is generally occupied with 
growing crops when it is impossible to apply directly to 
the soil ; (2) fresh manure is too coarse to apply in large 
amounts immediately before planting, because it cannot 
be incorporated thoroughly with the soil ; (3) fresh 
manure induces a rank growth of stem and leaf at the 
expense of a good crop or improper root development; 
(4) composting destroys weed seeds. 
Valuable data upon this subject have been published by 
the Maryland station. The results obtained show that 
(1) when manure is allowed to ferment in piles for six 
months no danger of distributing weed seeds is incurred; 
(2) when manure is allowed to remain in piles, under' 
going partial fermentation, little danger of distribution 
is incurred. 
Although composting is essential, it should be avoided 
as much as possible, for decomposition cannot be con- 
trolled without some loss of plant food. It also requires 
a large additional expenditure of labor in the extra 
handling. 
In the management of compost heaps the gardener 
should see that leaching and fire-fanging are controlled 
and that the finest texture is secured. To accomplish 
these ends it is customary to stack in rather compact, flat 
piles not less than 4 feet deep, and covering as much area 
as may be necessary. The piles are so deep that there can 
be no leaching if they are built with perpendicular sides. 
They must be watered with a hose often and freely 
enough to prevent fire-fanging. To improve the texture, 
the piles are turned from one to three times at conven- 
