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(st 
852 
COMPOST. 
takes place by decomposition, and then to proceed 
with it by carting and turning, nearly in the 
same manner as with unmixed farm-yard dung. 
In selecting the earthy and waste vegetable mat- 
ter for the compost, the refuse of such grassy and 
luxuriant places as differ most widely in charac- 
ter from the fields to which the compost is to be 
applied, ought in every instance to be preferred ; 
for refuse of this kind is most likely to abound 
in those elements of nutrition which the fields 
have in a great degree ceased to possess; while 
the refuse of grounds precisely similar in charac- 
ter and condition. to the fields which are to be 
manured could afford no supply of these particu- 
lar elements of nutrition, and might possibly add 
to the quantity of some deleterious excremental 
principle which the fields have acquired from re- 
cent cropping. “ Earth taken from arable fields 
that have been long in cultivation,” remarks Mr. 
Sproule, “seems the least suitable to enter into 
the composition of compost heaps; and, even 
when in combination with the dung, possesses 
no fertilizing properties that would not be pro- 
duced by the application of the same earth and 
| dung separately, for there is generally compara- 
tively little inert matter in this description of 
earth to be rendered soluble.” 
A common and very useful compost on sea- 
board districts, particularly around the whole 
coast of Ireland, is a mixture of sea-weed with 
| sand or earth; and when, as in many districts of 
| the Scottish Hebrides and the west and south of 
| Ireland, the sand of the mixture is calcareous, or 
consists in a large degree of finely comminuted 
shells, this compost is signally fertilizing. A 
compost slightly akin to this, yet of a peculiar 
and curious character, has been very successfully 
used in the county of Cork. It is prepared as 
follows :—“ Let a platform of sods or clay, the 
richer the better, be formed, about 6 inches thick, 
12 feet wide, and as long as may be necessary for 
the extent of the land to be manured. At one 
end of this, let the first load of lime, fresh from 
the kiln, be placed about 4 inches thick. Let 
the lime be then not only slacked but moistened 
with a solution of rock-salt, or any common salt 
in water, at the rate of six pounds of salt to each 
barrel of lime, pouring the solution or pickle gra- 
dually and evenly on the lime, as the latter is 
found to imbibe it. Then spread the lime, thus 
moistened, two or three inches thick on the plat- 
form, and cover it with 4 or 5 inches of clay. 
Let the second load of lime be laid on the plat- 
form near the first, and treated in the same man- 
ner. When the entire platform is thus covered, 
begin again with a second layer of lime; slack, 
moisten, spread, and cover it as the first, until it 
be also finished, and proceed in the same manner 
with a third and fourth layer. If the bed be not 
collected in one place, but deposited in a long 
row, as when the earth of a headland is used, one 
or two layers of lime and earth will be more con- 
venient, and will be equally advantageous. When | 
CON-ACRE. 
the whole is covered with earth, let the heap be 
cut down and well mixed; in which state it may 
be suffered to le until a short time before it is 
used, when it should be again turned. The pro- 
portion of water in which the salt is dissolved, 
depends on the state of the earth or mould. If 
the latter be wet, 20 gallons of water with 6 
pounds of salt dissolved in it, is sufficient for 
each barrel of lime; if it be dry, half a hogshead 
of water to that quantity of salt and lime will 
be necessary. Forty barrels of lime treated in 
this manner, is a full dressing for an acre of po- 
tatoes; half the quantity is enough for a top- 
dressing of an acre of land.” [Doyle’s Cyclo- 
pedia of Practical Husbandry.] But though 
this compost may be perfectly suitable to arena- 
ceous soils, under the frequent or excessive po- 
tato cultivation of Ireland, it is clearly and 
broadly disqualified, by its enormous deficiency 
in nitrogenous matter, to act as a proper fer- 
tilizer of almost any soil under the best rotations 
of cereal husbandry. The principles of its power 
are explained in our articles on Anumina and 
ALKALIES; and the principles of its unsuitable- 
ness for cereal crops are explained in our arti- 
cles on Ammonia and Azorz. 
Most good composts for stimulating and reno- | 
vating grass lands, or for application in the form 
of top-dressing, are combinations of earths, clays, 
sand, lime, and vegetable matter ; and require to 
be frequently turned and well pulverized, in order 
that their ingredients may thoroughly act upon 
one another, and that the particles of the whole 
may readily mix with the sward.—When a valua- 
tion of composts is required on occasion of the 
quitting of farms, a calculation is made of the cost 
of the materials, the cost of carrying them, the 
cost of mixing and applying them, and the com- 
parative durability and power of their action; 
and according to the aggregate weight and ten- 
dency of these circumstances is the amount of 
valuation. But in all ordinary cases, all mate- 
rials obtained within the limits of the farm are 
adjudged free from cost, and the power of any 
middle-rate or average compost is regarded as 
exhausted after two crops of corn, two mowings 
of grass, or four years of pasture. The very mul- 
tifarious manure which is obtained from the daily 
cleansing of large towns, may probably be viewed 
as a very emphatic compost; yet it has a charac- 
ter of its own almost as distinct as its origin, and 
will be noticed in its proper alphabetical place as 
Porics Manuru.—The British Farmer's Magazine. 
—Quarterly Journal of Agriculture —Transactions 
of the Highland Soctety.— Davy’s Agricultural 
Chemistry.—Sproule’s Agriculture—Hunter’s Geor- 
gical Essays.—Doyle’s Cyclopedia of Husbandry— 
The Gardener's Gazette—Knowledge Society's Bri- 
tish Husbandry.—Bayldon on Rents and Tillages. 
—Miller’s Dictionary. 
COMPOUND FLOWERS. See Composita. 
CON-ACRH. A retail and extortional system 
of letting land in many parts of Ireland. Most 
