Connecticut western news., 1882-08-23
THE FARM.

MT. W. D. Philbrick, a successful market gardener of Massachusetts, whose practical experience and opinions we have had frequent occasion to quote, contributes to the NeD Engla,ad Farmer this useful hint about the compost heap:
 "The manure made at this time of the year is subject to good deal of waste by evaporation, unless taken care of. If thrown into the pig pen, it will be partially worked up, and kept from burning, or pile in alternate layers with loam or peat, to be composted. If this compost heap could be made in a cellar or under shed and kept moist by hb- eral watering with liquid manure, pro- duct will result that is hard to beat in fertilizing garden. The floor upon which the compost is made is best made of cobble-stones or bricks laid in cement or tar and gravel, so as to be water. tight and solid enough to bear cart /: it should have a slight descent toward cistern which will catch the drainage. which should be provided with a chain pump for raising the same to the top of the compost heap, where it can easily be distributed by means of 8 gutter with perforated bottom. On wet days all hands on the farm may be proftably employed working over the compost in a shed or cellar and wetting it down with the drainage of the heap, which may be easily replenished with night soil whenever required. The waste from heap of hot strawy horse dung in the open air in summer is very great-fre- quently more than half the value-and consists of the most valuable as we'll as the most volatile of it's clements, the ammonia. Gather up all weeds that are going to seed and remove them to the pig-pen or compost heap. If the manure is piled and worked over two or three times before using, it will destroy all or nearly all the noxious seeds."
 From the same source we find the following on late and early greens:
 "Spinach seed for autumn and winter sale is sown about August 18th. The land should be very rich and free from the seeds of pursiane and barn grass, which grow very rapidly in the hot weather of August and early September. The seed should be sown rather more deeply in dry weather than in moist, and the surface well rolled after sewing to insrEs germination. For wintering over in the field 1t is better to defer the sowing of spinach seed till August 25tb to September 10th. The earlier SOW. ings will come to market early in spring, the later ones in May. For wintering splnach in the field good, strong clay soil, with sufficient deolivity to shed the surface water quickly, with. out washing is best. Lighter soils are more subject to winter r-killing. If the soil is naturally nearly level it may be made to answer well by throwing it into ridges with blow, gathering the ridges twice by back-furrowing in beds about ten feet wide; care should then be taken to make an outlet for the water from the furrows bet tween the beds. The land spinach should be heavily manured- the more manure the more spinach but it should be carefully covered and worked into the soll,, or there is danger that the land will be made too porous for free germination of the seed in hot, dry weather. Lettuce seed of.the white seeded variety is usually sown the last week in August for transplanting into hotbeds and greenhouses about Septem- Der 20. This will come to market in November"