Composts
Categories:
CARE OF STABLE MANURE
The compost, involving the handling of manure and soil, has
no rightful place on the average farm. The gardener or trucker using
great quantities of manure per acre must let some of the fermentation
occur before he incorporates it with the soil, or harm will result. He
wants reduction in volume, and such change in character that it will
add to the retentive character of the soil respecting moisture instead
of drying th
soil out. He can afford all the labor of piling the
manure with layers of sods or other material, and the turning to secure
mixing. It is his business to watch it so that loss will not occur.
The farmer uses manure in smaller quantities per acre. Probably all his
fields need the full action of the organic matter in its rotting. The
percentage of humus-making material is low. The place for fresh manure
is on the land, when this is feasible. The covered shed is a device for
holding manure with least possible loss when spreading cannot be done,
or a supply must be carried over for land in the summer. The gain in
condition is only incidental, and an advantage chiefly to vegetables.
The composting of manure by gardeners is not a practice to be copied on
most farms.