THE 
f3EW-Y©!KER. 
AUG. as 
the presence of the salt increases in any way 
the alkalinity of the lime. The mystery was 
finally solved by the researches of Prof. Gra¬ 
ham. of London, as has been explained by 
Prof. Johnson, in “ Peat and its Uses.” 
Thanks to the nneqoal rates at which the sev¬ 
eral chemical substances diffuse in presence of 
the porous peat, there is in the compost heap 
a leactiou between the salt and the lime so 
that some caustic soda and carbonate of soda 
are really formed there. But these powerful 
and readily soluble soda compounds at once 
act upon the organic matter and corrode it 
moie quickly than mere lime could do. There 
is an objection to the use of salt that the so¬ 
dium compounds arc not useful as plant food; 
and from this pointof view it would perhaps be 
well to use a mixture of the German muriate 
of potash and lime for composting, instead ot 
lime and salt. But there is another way of 
looking at the matter which is probably the 
best way ; fur, since the lime and salt mixture 
is simply despicable when considered chem¬ 
ically as a means of making caustic 6oda, it 
seems plain that if we wish to use caustic soda 
for making composts we had better buy it in 
the shops. But 6ince caustic potash is dis¬ 
tinctly better for compost, making than caustic 
soda, inasmuch as potash ie just as Btroug an 
alkali as soda aDd & true plant food into the 
bargaiu, the real moral of the use of lime and 
salt would seem to be that potashes and 
wood ashes are excellent materials lor making 
composts and should be procured for this pur¬ 
pose. 
There are some particular instances in which 
the use of alkalies in compost making is de¬ 
cidedly preferable to the use of dung. The 
composting of garden rubbish is a case in 
point. From the raking of garden beds and 
and walks great masses of rubbish are col¬ 
lected every year, consisting of 6ods, weeds, 
straw, leaves, lumpB of loam, clods of manure 
and many other things which are commonly 
buintd to the utter destruction of all the ni¬ 
trogen which the matters contain. No 
d'»uiit it is better in many cases to burn this 
rubbish rather than to have it thrown into the 
hog-pen or the bamyaid, in view of all the 
weal c-eeds, insects and fungi w hich 6ueh mat¬ 
ters liaibor; and in general the horning of 
gaidtn rubbish would Ire eleaily justified if 
tune were no oilier way ol dealing with it. 
But iu fact it might readily be treated with al¬ 
kalies in such a way that all risk of injury from 
the seeds Ceuld be ubviaitd while the organic 
mailer would be convened imo excellent man¬ 
ure. ll tuc-L i nbnishweie once Thoroughly mois¬ 
tened with dilute potash lye and thrown into 
toleiably large heupo. in a not ion dry place, it 
Would change to the condition of garden mold 
at the cost ul little if any further manipula 
lion, ihe same rernaik applies to weeds in 
general, and to the sweepings of hay lofts. 
A thorough Boakiug in weak solution of pot¬ 
ashes, or a generous admixture of fresh wood 
ashes and the subsequent moistening of the 
heap, would undoubtedly do the weed seeds 
such harm that iLwy could never recover fiom 
it. Wben, as in this case, compost making is 
to be regai ded as a device for cleaning the 
land, as well as for fertilizing it, some part of 
the cost of making the compost must, of 
course, be credited to the destruction of weeds. 
Another striking instance where alkali com¬ 
posts are in 01 der is seen in the case of the Eel- 
grass (Zoster a marina) which grows abundant¬ 
ly upon muddy bottoms iu suit and brackish 
waters. This Eel-grass is a singularly inde- 
etruciible kind of organic matter. It decays 
with extreme slowness iu the barnyard or the 
hog-peu or when buried in the earth. But it 
may easily be decomposed by composting with 
quick lime or any other stroug alkali, and it 
is well worthy of such treatmeut since it con¬ 
tains one and one-thud per cent- of nitrogen, 
one pei- cent, of potash and a quarter of a per 
cent, of phosphoric acid, besides lime aud 
magnesia. 
It may well be true that alkali-compoBts, 
such as have been described above, would be 
benefited if, afLor some mouths of decay and 
putreiacuon, they were moistened with barn¬ 
yard liquor, sewage, or night-soil for the pur¬ 
pose of iutiodueing a supply of the peculiar 
feiment w hich causes uitrification and which 
is known to be present iu decaying sewage, 
etc. Years ago when niter-beds were main¬ 
tained in Europe for the purpose of making 
saltpeter, it was found best, when a new bed 
was established, to mix with ltsouie earth from 
an old bed. We now believe that the old earth 
contained the ferment necessary for the process 
ot nitrification, and it is plain that the com¬ 
post maker may readily avail himself of this 
resource. In general, it may be well to pur¬ 
posely introduce the nitric ferment in this way 
to all compost heaps as soon as they have 
pust-ed through the first hot fermentation or as 
Boon as the original crude peat or other organic- 
matter has become changed to the condition of 
true bumus or vegetable mold. To this end it 
may perhaps be advisable to keep some old 
special heaps as reservoirs of the nitric fer¬ 
ment, for the express purpose of charging or 
“seeding” the newer heaps. By mixing Borne 
of the earth taken from these old heaps with 
the newer ones, the latter could be nitrified at 
will. 
It is not impossible, indeed, that peat 
which has been well weathered by simple expo¬ 
sure to frost and air may be already fit for the 
nitric fermentatiou aud that there is really no 
need of exciting in such peat the preliminary 
putrid fermentation. This ie another point 
that deserves to he carefully studied. Ju this 
view of the matter, it may be asked, in cases 
where dung and weathered peat are compost¬ 
ed, whether the chief use of the dung may not, 
after all, be to introduce the nitric ferment. At 
all events, the notion serves to enforce the fact 
that there are two distinct conceptions to be 
grasped by the compost maker:—I. He has to 
provide for the conversion of crude organic 
matters to mild humus, whether by the chemi¬ 
cal action of alkalies or by hot fermentation, 
or by both ; and II: he has to watch over the 
nitrification of the mild humus by the nitric 
ferment. If, perchance, the mere weathering 
of peat will do away with the need of takiDg 
the first step, that would be a decided gain in 
many cases; and the gain wiJl be still greater 
if, as seems well-nigh certain, the second step 
can be taken methodically and intelligeutly. 
It may be asked also, iu a somewhat different 
sense, whether it may not sometimes be advan¬ 
tageous to incorporate stable manure with 
alkali-composts tolerably soon after the estab¬ 
lishment of the heap ; that ie to say after the al¬ 
kali has been allowed sufficient time for its spe¬ 
cific action. Iu this case the dung might perhaps 
help to cure the peat as well as to introduce 
the nitrifying germs. Ou the other hand, marl, 
leached ashes, or old mortar may he added with 
advantage to dung composts and to those made 
with potashes or soda-ash, lor the sake of en¬ 
couraging the growth of the nitric lerment. 
Experiments, some of which weie reported in 
the Rural of March 13, have shown that the 
presence of carbonate of lime has a very favor¬ 
able influence upon the prosperity of the nitric 
ferment, and it is well-known that the lime 
carbonate was considered to be an essential 
adjunct to the porous earth of the "saltpeter 
plantations” of former days. So, too, it has 
often been noticed that nitrates are especially 
apt to be formed in limestone caves and upon 
dump walls that aie plastered with lime. It i6 
doubtless by their influence at the nitrification 
stage that marl and leached ashes and the other 
forms of lime carbonate have approved them¬ 
selves useful in compost making. Carbonate 
of lime can correct acidity it is true, and it 
would serve as well as any other alkali for 
treating those peats, occasionally met with, 
that are poisoned with sulphats of iron ; but it 
has little power to corrode organic matter by 
mere force of alkalinity and should not be used 
for decomposing rough, crude materials such 
as are readily reduced by rneaub of quick lime 
or wood ashes. It is true that certain well- 
known experiments by Schulze have Bhowu 
that vegetable mold kept moist aud warm and 
exposed to ike air, decomposes much more 
rapidly when mixed with carbonate of lime 
than when kept free from such admixture, but 
in th - light of existing knowledge it appears 
that the observed rapid decomposition of the 
humus in presence of the lime carbonate was 
probably due to the activity of the nitric fer¬ 
ment and not to chemical corrosion. 
One very effective method of making com¬ 
post, and particularly of charging the compost 
with nitrates was described many years ago by 
Lorain. The idea is to maintain at a conve¬ 
nient distance from the kitchen sink, heaps of 
peat or other matters, including rubbish from 
the house and yard, and to lead to these heaps 
thiough a pipe or gutter all the suds and slop 
water of the house. Each ol the heaps may be 
moistened in its turu by shifting a moveable 
pipe, or a single heap may be built up gradual¬ 
ly by throwing peat or loam upon it at inter¬ 
vals. It. is plain that considerable quantities 
of excellent manure could be tnude in this way, 
and that the proce-s might be made unobjec¬ 
tionable by taking care to throw earth upon 
the heaps often enough to avoid putrid emaua- 
tions aud offensive odors. If it were necessary, 
a trench or depression might be dug in which 
to place the heaps, in older that tlie slop water 
may flow freely to them. The method 1 b akin 
to a plan sometimes adopted in Europe of 
establishing compost heaps at a point lower 
than the barn-yard so that the urine and dang 
liquor may occasionally be made to flow upon 
the heaps, to preveut them from becoming dry 
and to charge them with the nitric ferment. 
In this case, as in the other, care should be 
taken to run a furrow around the heaps to lead 
away any excess of rain water. 
One reason why the reputation of peat com¬ 
posts has suffered in recent years is that, as 
commonly made, they are rather one-sided or 
“special" manures, not competent to compete 
with mixtures which contain all the elements 
of plant food. Peat compost prepared with 
dung, urine, fish, or flesh, is really little more 
than a nitrogenous fertilizer which, ou most 
lands, would need to be supplemented with 
phosphatic and potassic manures, or perhaps 
even with lime, in order that the best powers 
of the compost may be felt, and that profitable 
crops may be grown by means of it. Composts 
prepared with potash compounds, or with 
lime, do, of course, contain, respectively, an 
abundance of potassic and calcareous plant 
food, but there is still a great deficiency of 
phosphates. This want may readily be made 
good by strewing spent bone-black from the 
sugar refineries, or even finely ground phos¬ 
phate-rock, among the layers of dung and peat 
at the time when the compost heap Is built. 
Thanks to the chemical action in the heap and 
to the carbonic acid which is freely generated 
there, enough of the phosphate will be corrod¬ 
ed to make it useful as manure, at absolutely 
no expense to the farmer other than the first 
cost of the bone black and the trouble of strew¬ 
ing it on the peat. Several experiments in 
composting ground phosphate rock iu this 
way have been made in Germany with good 
results. 
It is not to be supposed that the phos¬ 
phates thus composted are In any sense so 
quick of action as the phosphoric acid in su- 
pciphosjjhate of lime or as that in bone meal, 
but the composted phosphate is undoubtedly 
well-suited for application to many grasslands 
and for other purposes where quick action is 
not lequired, and it is to be remembered that 
it costs comparatively little. A given amount 
of money expeuded in this way will fertilize 
with phosphoric acid a much larger area of 
land than could possibly be done by buying 
superphosphate or the like. There are times 
and places where the composted phosphate 
may be more fitly used than the more costly 
phosphatic manures, and it is the business of 
the farmer to recognize this truth and to gov¬ 
ern his proceedings accordingly. It may be 
6aid iu general that the composted phosphate 
will probably be found better for poor laud and 
for fieldB incapable of repaying the application 
of more costly manure. It can hardly be of 
much use iu high-farming, so called, but may 
nevertheless have real merit for promoting the 
growth of moderately good crops that are to 
be grown at very little cost, after the common 
American fashion. Like bone-meal, composted 
phosphate will doubtless be found not to do so 
good service upon dry land as upon that which 
is duly moist. 
Another point to be mentioned in favor of 
composts is the power of making them far 
from home, for fertilizing outlying fields where 
peat or mud from marshes or ditches is obtain¬ 
able. In thi6 case the cost of transporting 
dung may be avoided oy using either fish- 
scrap, the dried meat dust from slaughter¬ 
houses, potashes, wood ashes, or lime as the 
fermenting agent, care being taken to estab¬ 
lish the heap in not too dry a position. A 
Bomewbat analogous device, formerly prac- 
tietd in Massachusetts, was to haul a quantity 
of swamp mud in the Autumn or early Winter 
upon the fields where corn was to be grown 
next year aod to haul out upou these Adds 
next Spring from the barnyard enough manure 
to ferment the peat. As soon as the wealher 
purmitied, the peat and dung were mixed, fer¬ 
mentation soon set in and the compost was 
ready for use at the time of corn planting. 
Jarra Copies. 
COUNTRY LIFE. 
Observations Among Rural Subscribers. 
COL. F. D. CURTIS. 
The Curtis Homestead, now owned by L. D. 
Sherwood, is another example of the prudence 
aud forethought of my father, who provided 
for the future by planting orchards to take the 
place of the old ones begiuniug to decay, and 
who increased his capital stock by investing 
liis annual surpluses in the improvement of the 
farm. By this system of sonud financial man¬ 
agement he increased the value of the farm 
from $40 per acre, the purchase price, to $65, at 
which rate it was sold to Mr. Sherwood twenty 
years ago. 
The farm embraces two varieties of soil— 
warm, gravelly loam, which gives crops an 
early start in the Spring, and a more compact 
and colder clay loam, which is ualural for 
grass, aud, being retentive of moisture, sup¬ 
plies fresh pasture in the drier portions of the 
Summer and is always sure to yield large crops 
of hay. The double character of the farm en¬ 
ables Mr. Sherwood to follow both grain rais¬ 
ing and stock growing with profit, lieuee he 
unites these two branches of husbandry. Hie 
heavy soil is kept in permanent pastures and 
meadows, an arrangement which enables him 
by feeding the products to stock to make a 
large amount of manure, fie has found that 
by liberal top-dressing he can maintain a 
meadow for a term of yearB, which would other¬ 
wise inn oat. He strengthens his meadows 
and adds to their permanence by allowing a 
growth of aftermath iu the Autumn, which 
protects the roots so that there is less freezing 
and thawing and consequently less loss. The 
pastures are replenished yearly by the drop¬ 
ping® of the animals, aud by allowing the grass 
to start up before Winter the same beneficial 
results are obtained as with the aftermath in 
the meadows. In the rotation of the grain 
crops clover is an important factor, it being 
especially suited to the porticus of the farm 
which are more specially utilized iu grain 
raising. Clover starts early in the season on 
these lands and consequently can be cut in 
mid-summer, leaving the balance of the season 
for a st cond growth, which, with the liberal 
manuring Mr. Sherwood gives his fields, makes 
a large growth and supplies late feed in the 
Autumn, while the meadows and pastures are 
clothing themselves with their Winter protec¬ 
tion. 
Like, other farmers who have been trained in 
the old school, Mr. Sherwood has no special¬ 
ties unless it is his corn field. The gravelly 
soil is natural to corn, and the owner of these 
choice lands knows just how to manipulate 
them for the production of a large crop. In 
his rotation of crops he has a clover field every 
year to be turned over for corn. He plows his 
manure under, not because this is always the 
best wav, hut because he was brought up to 
do so and because he invariably has good 
crops under this system. 
There is sound philosophy embodied iu it. 
He plows his corn ground in the Spring, turn¬ 
ing under the clover roots and vegetable mat¬ 
ter on the surface, which, together with the 
manure, form an active stimulant by the pro¬ 
cesses of decay, aud at the same time, owing 
to the variety of vegetation and salts con¬ 
tained in them, the clover stems, leaves and 
roots, and the manure brought from the barn¬ 
yard, create a permanent food for the growing 
corn. Mixing a variety of manure is an excel¬ 
lent idea, as it insures active decomposition 
and is certain to supply the needful wants of 
the plants. 
Chemists may talk very wisely about reg¬ 
ular prescriptions aud doses for ptants (a 
kind of vegetable doctoring), but Mr. Sher¬ 
wood, with his practical sagacity in com¬ 
bining his manures, intrusting to the instinct 
of the corn to make its own selections (doctor¬ 
ing itself), if he docs not beat science, raises 
most satisfactory crops. Like other farmers 
who calculate closely as to profits, Mr, Sher¬ 
wood keeps a flock of well selected sheep, 
from which he sells wool aud lambs. A small 
dairy furnishes a surplus of butter, the milk 
being used to promote the growth of pigs. He 
has enlarged the old rule of “ a pig to a cow," 
by obtaining Victoria stock, which are re¬ 
markably easy keepers; aud by adding to the 
milk a little ground feed, and allowing it to 
feiment slightly, it is more easily digested 
and wholesome. He can thus double the num¬ 
ber of pigs allowed by the old rule, and thereby 
add to the profits 
My father made a Berious mistake wheu 
he started his young orehaid. While Mr. 
Sherwood feels grateful for Lis orchard, which 
produces hundreds of barrels of apples, he 
regrets that there is such a large variety, 
many of which are unmarketable, and, of 
course, of little value. The truth is. father 
was a good-natured man and wanted to please 
everybody, and so he grafted into his orchard 
everybody's “ best apple." Among other eorts 
was a seedless kind, air to look upon, but so 
tough aud dry that it. has no merit except as 
an exception to the law ot nature which pro¬ 
vides for its own propagation, Mr. Sherwood 
believes in care and painstaking. His farm 
and grounds everywhere show evidences of 
this characteristic. He has removed fences 
between elds, thus doing away with needless 
expense and making the land more convenient 
for tillage. Id wtuter his hens receive special 
care and are watered daily with warm water, 
and given a variety of feed, including coni 
ashes, which Mr. Sherwood has discovered 
they are very fond of, pickiug out the charred 
bits. The hens have a warm place to roost in. 
The result of this attention is that, the owner 
sells more eggs than any of his neighbors. 
THE TRUTH ABOUT IT. 
[The object of articles under this heading is not so 
much to deal with “humbugs" as with the many un • 
conscious errors that c.reej) into the methods of daily 
country routine life.—E ds.] 
FILTH IN THE FLOUR BARREL. 
HENRY STEWART. 
The Rural's remarks upon “Clean Cereal 
Food " iu the issue of August 7t.h, are very 
pertinent aud timely. There need to be some 
sharp things said ou this subject. The miller, 
however, is by no means the mau to bear the 
blame. It was ouee my fortune to own a farm 
with a grist mil) attached, at which a large 
amount of custom work was doue for the 
neighboriug farmers. Some merchant work 
was also done for large lumbering establish 
meats and tanneries within a circle of 10 to 20 
miles, and tnueh graiu was purchased for this 
purpose. Milling was a new business to me 
and the experience very soon gave me a new 
idea of the remarkable carelessness of the 
farmers and the loss to which they subjected 
themselves thereby. It also showed in a most 
astonishing manner what an amount of dis- 
