The mountain sentinel. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1844-1853, 1850-07-18
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From the Norristo,on Herald and Free Press.
Materials for COmDOSt.

Materials for Compost.
| Commence with the first favorable wea-
| ther, to accumulate materials for manure
Allow no particle of matter susceptible Of
! being converted into the food of plants, to
pass your hands. Manure, 1t should be
remembered, is the farmers capital-the
wand by the favorable instrumentality he
is enabled to diversity the earths surface
with the smiling beauties of vegetation,
| and cause the waste places thereof 10
| bloom, and the desert to blossom as the
| rose.
"Give me sufficiency of manure"
said an elderly farmer to me, recently, "and
will work out a living in any country,
and from any soil.' Yhe merchant must
have capitalize mechanic must have in
struction, materials and tools-and the
farmer whose heritage is the broad fields
and fertile valleys of his ''mother earth, :"
mast hare manure. 1t therefore behoove S
every one to be attentive to this grand
| point, and 10 gather up the means of en-
riching and rendering fruitful, the soil, the
| products of which he relies on for subsist-
cnce, happiness and life. No one who
has not made the experiment will be able
easily TO appreciate the importance of at
pldCllCtllN duu 10 tIlG
rules thus cusorily laid down.
Some are apt to imagine that because
they have no deposits of,muck, mari or peat
on their farms, composing is a depart
ment to which they cannot resort without
certain disappointment and loss. Such,
however, is by no means the fact. Though
there may not be an atom Of either of the
above named substances on your lands,
yet you have abundant materials in the
spurious Vegetation of your pastures and
cultivated lands; the clay loan and sand of
your W aste places, and high ways; in the
ha ulm of your grain crops, and in the de-
cayed vegetable matter which is every
where SO Prodigally revealing its invalua-
bic riches to the eye of the observer, in the
forests and and on every hand.
By accommodating these at favorable sea-
sons, and mixing them iudiciously, with
the assistance of animal matters, compost
of very superior quality may be manu-
iactured in almost any quanty desired, and
at small expense. If the soil to which
you intend applying it, of a light arena
clous description, approaching to sand, the
amount of clay can scarcely be too large.
The more of this earth you apply to such
lands, the better will be the effect Of the
! putrescent animal and mineral matters you
bestow. 1t effects speedy mechanical
ameloration, by favorbly modifying the
constitutional character which is originally
too lax. Manures applied to dry sands,
usually produces comparatively slight ef-
iects; 1t dries, does not decompose from
lack of moisture, and when deposited in
the hill, is often, particularly in dry sea-
sons, harmful rather than beneficial to the
crop. Ii the soil to be ameliorated be clay-
t ey, or argillaceous, the basis of the COM
5 post heap should be sand. This produces
as wondelul effects on clay as that earth
t does on sand, though by an action precise
, y the reverse. 1t depresses it of plastici-
, ty, and makes it dry.
1t has been computed. and | have no
/ doubt that upon correct and accurate ex-
pertinent, the computation would be found
correct, that the liquid excrement of our
domestic animals is in point of actual val
ue as stimulant, equal to the solid void
mgs. This important and valuable adiu
tant IN the great work of economsing ma
nure, Is, however, generally overlooked.
by deposIung stratum of leaves, sawdust
, rotten wood, chip dung, straw or haulm, or
indeed, any other material capacified TO
absorb the urine, and sprinkling every
night "a quantity of gypsum over the sur
face TO attract ana fix the ammonia, its
economizing will be speedily and thor
: oughly secured.
In some sections where much lumber
is manufactured, the farmers have lately
found that the saw dust, and fine shavings
thrown out by the artistic process of saw
ing and turning, afford excellent materials
! Tor compost. These in such situations,
d are easily obtainable, as the owners and
iofemen of these manufactures readily
permit them to be taken away free of cost.
ihey are generally used as bedding for
swihe' oxen, cows, sheep, horses, &c.,
e and are thus saturated with the liquid mat
ters, and SO thoroughly intermixed and
5 blended with the more solid and fermenta-
' tble Substances, that when removed 10 the
! compost heap, and subjected TO the action