AUQ. 7 
Jfarra damotnj. 
A SCIENTIFIC VIEW OF COMPOSTS. 
professor f. n. storer. 
It is a very old maxiru that by mixing dung 
and peat (i. e., swamp mud or marsh mud) 
in the proportion of one load of the former 
to two, three, or four loads of the latter, ac¬ 
cording to the quality of both, and allowing 
the mixture to ferment, a new and valuable 
kind of manure will be obtained, different 
from either of its components and on the 
whole superior to them. 
The truth of this conception admits of no 
doubt. The merit of the method ot procedure 
has been proved by so many different farm¬ 
ers, in different countries, that the maxim 
must be accepted as one resting upon a solid 
basis of fact. It has been largely acted upon 
in many localities, particularly in Scotland and 
in some parts of New England where the mak¬ 
ing of composts was at one time highly ap¬ 
proved. There caunot be the least doubt that 
such composts are admirably well suited for 
fertilizing ft multitude of soilB in many local¬ 
ities. The fact of their being useful and con¬ 
venient manures was proved long ago. The 
question which Interests the farmer to-day is 
whether he can get in any other way, at less 
cost, as good a manure as the compost yields 
him ; and upon this point there is great need 
of precise experiments made to determine 
whether, at a given farm, composts are not 
really as economical ub they are efficient. 
As commouly made, peat composts are to 
be classed among nitrogenous manures; and 
it is to be remembered that those nitrogenous 
fertilizers which are commercial products, to 
be bought with money, are precisely the hard¬ 
est to get and the most costly of manures. 
There is a stroug incentive therefore for the 
farmer to make them himself, if he can do so 
with economy. It may here be said, in par¬ 
enthesis. that though nitrogenous food is the 
kind most commonly predominant in com¬ 
posts it would not be difficult to prepare com¬ 
posts which should contain all the other im¬ 
portant elements of plant food beside nitro¬ 
gen, and there are probably many farmers 
so situated that they should find their profit in 
so doing rather than in buying mixed chemical 
fertilizers such as crowd the markets and 
darken counsel nowadays. 
Many approved methods of making com¬ 
posts have been put upon record in past 
years. Frofessor Johnson, for example, re¬ 
fers to many of them iu his little hook on 
“ Peat and its Uses,” aud the back volumes of 
most agricultural newspapers contain numer¬ 
ous recipes. It is not improbable, however, 
that most of these recipes admit of being im¬ 
proved, In the light of existing knowledge, 
aud it is much to be desired that those fanners 
who make composts nowadays should strive 
to improve upon the older practices. 
There are several different kinds of chemi¬ 
cal changes to be distinguished in the prepar¬ 
ation of composts. In the first place there is 
the hot putrefactive fermentation, by which 
the condition of the peat or sods or other iu- 
ert material is greatly changed, aud the latent 
powir of the materials to promote fertility is 
brought out. The character of this change 
may be illustrated by a reference to the old 
French method of making a quick manure 
from bone-meal. The bone-meal was thrown 
into 6mall heaps, with or without the addi¬ 
tion of a little loam, and the heaps were 
moistened with putrid uriue or ham-yard 
liquor. Fermentation speedily act in and the 
heaps became hot while the pungent odor of 
ammonia was freely evolved. Bone-meal thus 
fermented was found to be a powerful forc¬ 
ing manure, much quicker of action than the 
unfermented meal. Before the introduction 
of Peruvian guauo, which it is well fitted to 
replace in many circumstances, the fermented 
bone was highly esteemed. Now iu this ease 
there can he no doubt that the animal matter of 
the b<me suffered fermentation and that atu- 
mouiaeal and other products were formed 
such as are approved sources of nitrogen¬ 
ous food for plants. Unfcruiented bone- 
meal used by itself, is a manure of less rapid 
action because its nitrogenous constituents 
are comparatively speaking iuert. They de¬ 
cay rather slowly in the earth and hardly at 
all if the earth be dry. But by the preliminary 
fermentation the character of these compounds 
is so changed that they become a manure of 
quick action. And so it is when the still 
more inert nitrogen compounds in peat are 
fermented. They uudergo such changes that 
an active manure is the result. 
With regard to the uction of the “ferment,” 
4 . e., the dung-liquor, iu the case Just now in 
question, It used to be said that matter in a 
state of decomposition or chaugo is apt to 
impart this condition to other matters with 
which it comes in contact. The idea was iu 
Borne sort based on the familiar fact that by 
THE BUBAL NEW-VOBKEB. 
placing burning shavings in contact with cord 
wood we can carry forward, as it were, the 
chemical action and bring to pass the com¬ 
bustion of the wood. But it is now known 
that fermentations such as the foregoing 
are due to the presence of living organisms. 
The dung liquor added to the bone-meal was 
charged with the organisms which cause putre¬ 
factive fermentation, just as yeast is charged 
with organisms proper for the fermentation 
of dough. So, too, in the compost heap built of 
peat and dung, the rotting duug is, so to say, 
the yeast whose inmates ferment the peat. 
And the dung and peat, together, afford fit 
feeding ground for the increase aud multipli¬ 
cation of the organisms. 
It is manifest, in this pointof view, that those 
kinds of dung which ferment most readily will 
be most efficient as excitants in the compost 
heap -, and it has been found in practice that 
“ hot ” manures, lilce the dung of horses and 
sheep, urine and night-soil, are particularly 
well-suited for the purpose. There are some 
peats so constituted that they will ferment of 
themselves in warm weather, even in the bog, 
doubtless from becoming charged with ferment 
germs deposited from the air. And there are 
other kinds that would slowly ferment in the 
same way, after having been weathered, if 
they were kept properly moist in warm 
weather. But by adding the active ferment in 
quantity, in the form of dung or the like, time 
is gained and an efficient, methodical action 
insured. In point of fact, few better examples 
of the hot fermentation can be fouud than 
those witnessed in the mixtures of 6traw or 
leaves aud horse manure which are made by 
gardeners in the preparation of hot-beds. Iu 
this case, the heat generated by the mixture 
and the mode of its generation are consider¬ 
ations of the first importance ; and special care 
is takcu that euough straw or leaves shall be 
mixed with the dung to insure a regular, long- 
continued and not too rapid fermentation, 
with the attendant evolutiou of heat. Care is 
taken also not to nse the mixtures until the 
first flush of fermentation has been checked, 
for the excessive heat generated in the earlier 
stages would he fatal to most seeds and plants. 
Some methodical experiments made by Ul- 
bricht in Germany upon bone-meal are inter¬ 
esting both as illustrating the character of the 
first fermentation in the compost heap and by 
enforcing the need of keeping this fermenta¬ 
tion under control, in order to avoid too great 
a waste of the nitrogenous ingredients. Five 
hundred and sixty pounds of fine boue-meal 
were moistened with 12 gallons of barn-yard 
liquor, thoroughly mixed with some 1,100 
pouuds of “compost earth," and shaken into 
a heap about eight inches high. The temper¬ 
ature of the interior of the heap was then taken 
by means of a thermometer, and the increase 
of temperature was noted from time to time 
as Ihefermentationproeeeded. Iu the beginning 
the temperature of the heap, taken at a depth 
of four tuches, was 03 deg. (F). but in the 
coarse of 24 hours it rose to 117 deg., while an 
abundance of ammonia gas and steam was 
evolved, and at the end of 48 hours the maxi¬ 
mum temperature of 120 degrees was reached. 
The fermentation then slowly subsided and 
the heap gradually cooled off. At the close of 
the third day the thermometer marked 122 
deg., aud it stood at 118, 113, 05 aud 81 deg. at 
the end of the succeeding clays respectively. 
No odor of ammonia was perceptible after the 
the seventh day. In the beginning the heap 
weighed 1713 German pounds and consisted of 
Awh iutfmdieutB. 
WaUir . 
Dry ornranio matter 
1 11 * 8 , 
:m.o •• 
167 
1,713.5 “ 
it contained 23.3 pounds of uitrogen. At the 
end of the second day when the fermentation 
had reached its maximum, the heap con¬ 
tained of 
Water.... 159 lbs. 
llry organic matter. 15S 
Nitrogen. 19.7 “ 
so that three and a haif pouuds of the nitrogen 
of the bone-meal had been lost in the course ot 
48 hours, that is to say 15.6 per cent, of the 
original nitrogen. During the subsequent live 
days the weight of the heap diminished but 
little, and scarcely any more of the nitrogen 
was lost. 
A subsidiary question of a good deal of in¬ 
terest is whether the dung used to start fer¬ 
mentation iu the compost heap does not there 
decay in a more advantageous manner than it 
would have decayed in the original dung-heap. 
There are some reasons tor believing that the 
comparatively speaking moderated and meth¬ 
odizing decay which the duug undergoes iu 
the compost heap may tend to hinder the 
decomposition aud loss of its nitrogenous con¬ 
stituents, which are apt to occur to a consider¬ 
able extent iu the dung-heap proper. The 
good results of the common practice of throw¬ 
ing peat, loam, straw or even sand into the 
burn cellar “as absorbents” may really be due 
in some part to the action of these materials 
iu moderating the decay of the dung and 
changing the character of the hurtful decom¬ 
positions to which duug is liable.—To be con¬ 
tinued. 
Jatra ®oj}irs. 
INFLUENCE OF THE “PRESS” UPON THE 
FARMER AND HIS “SURROUNDINGS.” 
RICHARD GOODMAN. 
Madame De Stael wrote a ti eatise entitled 
“The Influence of Literature upon Society,” 
the object of which was to show the reciprocal 
influences of literature, religion, manners and 
laws. A gentleman recently traveling through 
Massachusetts on horseback, accompanied by 
his son on a bicycle, noted how much better 
than a few years ago bread was at the various 
hostelries, and ascribed the improvement to 
the Centennial Exhibition at Philadelphia, 
where the Vienna and other breads created in 
many a new appetite for cereals, and taught, 
the hitherto untraveled Yankee woman how 
much virtue there is in the “staff of life.” if 
made properly. Bat other influences have 
been at work for improvement, not only of 
bread, but of all other matters connected with 
agriculture and home comforts, and another 
De Stuel might find amusement in tracing to 
the fountain-heads the divers causes which 
have put yeast into the whole leaven of rural 
society, and not only prevented its dropping 
to a European level, but so elevated it that, as 
has been remarked by an intelligent. English 
traveler, among the working classes of the 
United States there are no cornm-cm people. 
That is, we have here no low grade of 
agricultural laborers as in Great Britain aud 
generally on the Continent, but as the English 
girl, on a visit here, said, when rebuked for 
skating in company with a butcher boy, “she 
was not certain but he might yet be President 
of the United States.” so there is a feeling at 
the bottom of all the hopes and aspirations of 
even the sons of the most moderate farmer and 
artizan that the highest positions in civil life 
can be reached by any one whose talents com¬ 
mand success, without being handicapped by 
the accidents of birth or occupation. 
Perhaps the three most prominent influences 
which have tended to the improvement of 
agriculture and its advance practically and 
scientifically have been the agricultural news¬ 
papers, the town, county and State societies 
with their annual exhibitions or catlle shows, 
and the example of the gentlemen of means 
with tastes for farming, who have in all por¬ 
tions of the country entered as a wedge be¬ 
tween the adhesive habits of the plodding 
farmer, and broken into them, and emancipated 
him from their control. The agricultural 
schools and colleges whose influences are just 
beginning to be felt, hardly made any impres¬ 
sion at the start, owing to the prejudices of 
the old-fashioned tiller of the soil against "book 
laming,” and what he called the “new-fangled 
notions” of scientific insti actors, and it is only 
now when the young men, more ambitious than 
their sires, return from these schools, and 
put in practical operation what they have 
learnt, and develop the resources of the farm 
and turn their knowledge into money, that 
these creations of the general government are 
estimated at their true value, and we shall yet 
fiud them appreciated more aud more highly 
by the whole community agricultural and 
otherwise. 
But it is the continual dropping that wears 
into even the stone, aud conservative as the 
farmer is, and ever has been, no influence less 
continuous, progressive and puncturative than 
the constant preaching of the agricultural pa¬ 
pers could have Boftened his pachydermatous 
nature, and prepared it for the more irregular 
activities which have assisted in converting the 
modern agriculturist into the humane biped 
he ha3 become, aud his farm into its present, 
comparatively lucrative source of income. I 
say “humane," for the old-fashioned, non¬ 
reading farmer was, and is, inhuman, especially 
to women and “other cattle” under his control, 
and he looked with callous indifference upon 
the slavish existence of the female head of his 
household, who rose at daylight to get his 
breakfast, and toiled the live-loug day at the 
wash-tub, the butter making, iu the kitchen at 
the cooking aud ironing, and risked her life 
going to aud from the distant privy through 
the wet grass, aud brought the wood from the 
shed, being lucky if she did not have to split 
it herself, and the water a dozen times a day 
from the well, rushiug then into the cold aud 
wet from the overheated kitchen. 
Those of us who are living in the more en¬ 
lightened portions of the country think that all 
these evils have passed away, aud wonder that 
the agricultural papers yet harp upon that 
string; but there are many farmers and even 
villagers well-to-do iu the world with thorough¬ 
bred cows worth hundreds of dollars each and 
fancy horses, who yet live in their kitchens, 
sleep all Summer iu feather beds, eschew fresh 
meat aud vegetables in proper variety, know 
aud care nothing aboat the convenieucies of 
the earth-closet, snuff up the odors of the sink 
refuse under the buttery window, see their 
“women" pine away before their eyes, and 
trust In Providence and that great secret of 
wealth formulated by Dr. Franklin and so 
much abused by his countrymen, “When a cent 
is got, keep it.” What an existence for a 
rational human being do many of these farmers 
and their families lead day alter day, subor¬ 
dinating everything to work and accretion o.t 
substance, depriving themselvesol all comforte, 
to say nothing of the luxuries which all are 
entitled to in the present age, even eating food 
not for the enjoyment of it, but as a means of 
existence, and selecting it for its cheapness and 
not even for its wholesomeDCse. going the 
rounds of the daily toil as the horse in the tan¬ 
ner’s yard, without much more mental exer¬ 
cise than it, and avoiding all amusements and 
rational exercises as improper interruptions of 
of their slavish labor. 
This is no fancy picture even of a New England 
farmer’s existence, for one of that class bnt 
recently died near me, who labored so from 
dawn to night that bt was unable to lie straight 
in his bed, and had often to kueel at a chair, 
not in thanksgiving for blessings vouchsafed, 
for he wouldn’t reccivo any, but to get a posi¬ 
tion which relieved the achiug of hi3 over¬ 
worked body. The whole household, aud espec¬ 
ially the women, had to keep pace with his mur¬ 
derous stride, the cattle deprived Of fresh air 
in ill-ventilated stables were sick and filthy, 
and the only consolation of these poor-rich 
people’s existence was that their money in¬ 
creased while their enjoyments, if they pos¬ 
sessed any, became beautifully less. 
It will be time enough for the newspaper 
sentinels to forbear their constant warnings 
when the farming men are willing to provide 
their wives with everything necessary for their 
comfort and have them fairly share the earnings 
of their mutual toil, when the earth or water- 
closet replaces the horrible privy, when the 
refuse of the sink is earned under ground to a 
distance from the house, when the water is ac¬ 
cessible in the kitchen by means of a pump, 
when the wood is plentiful and dry, and handy 
to reach, when the food is of a nature to agree 
with the constitution of women and children 
who have not as the men the continual antidote 
of fresh air, when a portion of each day is 
devoted to some rational relief from work, 
either in driving, walking or visiting, and the 
evenings are enlivened, by sociable converse, 
reading or amusements, when the children are 
not overworked, but afforded all the advan¬ 
tages of education and plenty of play, when 
the cattle are kept clean and healthy, the hay 
cut early, the garden looked upon as an impor¬ 
tant adjunct in the enjoyment and preservation 
of health, and when, in fine, the farmer looks 
upon himseif aud family as deserving of all 
the reasonable comforts and enjoyments of life 
as any other human creature, and bestows 
them upon himself and them. 
Lenox. Mass. 
•-- 
COUNTRY LIFE. 
COL. F. D. CURTIS. 
Observation:! Among Rural Subscribers. 
Maple Avenue is a street a little over a 
mile in length, ruuniug due north and south, 
lying midway between two parallel roads half 
a mile apart The road is bordered by maple 
trees interspersed with elm, and by the enter¬ 
prise and benevolence of a former resident, 
AmmlDows, now deceased, it wus graded the 
entire length and the road-bed made smooth, 
hard aud permanent with gravel. It is a me¬ 
mento ever reminding us of a generous, public- 
spirited and noble man, who brought to the 
homestead of his fathers a foitune made in 
New York, which he was willing to spend for 
the benefit of his less fortunate neighbors. 
This street is a continuous meadow or lawn 
kept with care. 
Haying begins on Maple Avenue with mow¬ 
ing the road. This is the model street of the 
town aud of the county, and every farmer takes 
the Rural, including the minister, the Rev. C. 
\V. Backus, who now owns the Dows' home¬ 
stead. Although Maple Aveuue is a public 
highway, the expense of door-yard and garden 
fences, has been dispensed with iu several in¬ 
stances and no inconvenience is experienced. 
Tbis innovation, besides reduciug expenses, 
has made the residences much more attractive 
by doing away with the untidy and cramped 
effects of old fences and dooryards. Mr. Back¬ 
us has ornamented his farm front with a Honey 
Locust hedge, and at the same time made in the 
future a shelter for his orchard. The finest 
barn in the town is on this place. It combines 
wagon house aud stable all under one roof. 
The scaffolds and flooring overhead are made 
of matched stuff, so there can be no litter below. 
A railroad track on the top is used to elevate 
the hay aloft and chutes convey it to the points 
where it is needed lor feeding, whereit is caught 
in boxes, which prevents dust and “ muss” on 
the floor. In building his barn Mr. Backus 
coupled convenience with comfort for his ani¬ 
mals and the Idea that a barn should be orna¬ 
mental as well as useful. He thinks that un¬ 
sightly outbuildings often render a home repul¬ 
sive which might otherwise be attractive. 
Mr. Veeder last year raised the best crop of 
corn. He did it by thorough tillage. His oats 
