The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1890-10-28
H HEAP.

NONOOA
Nh. EDIToR:-Not many Nor Of
any profession or vocati IN can take in
one view the whole field of this bust.
ness for one year. The farmer, for
instance, cannot see the whole life of
the farm from season to season, know
ing what ale the duties and how to
perform them of each and every
month and week of the year. He
ought to see these duties in this rela.
tive order of time and importance. He
ought to study them as he would a
chart or a waybill, Instead he too
often follows thoughtlessly the beheSts
of custom. Hence fallacies are com
mon among the best farmers. Among
these fsllacies is the idea of cooking
food for stock; the idea that cutting
food for cattle Influences the digesti-
bility; the thoughIless methods of
making compost heaps, etc. l shall
notice briefly the lsst.named fallacy
only. | am not opposed to careful
and intelligent composing. There is
such a thing, however, as OVERRIDING
the compost heap. When it takes
more time and labor and money than
it is worth, then it is overdone and
instead of being a help is a hindrance.
Frequently materials of little or no
value is carted, at considerable ex-
pense, to the compost heap. Too
often quantity is alone considered.
Men too often think that the bigger
the hill the more they have. They
will haul from their stables the
highest quality of manure and dilute
it with worthless dry weeds, muck
and every conceivable nuisance, GOV
ering the whole, like a huge coal kiln,
with the poorest kind of soil. Of
course the ammonia and other f%ertiliz.
ing properties of the stable manure
permeaIe the entire heap, diluting its
own life to death that it may infuse a
semblance of life to the mass. The
farmer imagines he has wonderfully
increased his manure supply, when in
reality the manure he carted from
the stables was worth more than the
heap after many days of toiling and
scraping up of worthless trash to
make it. Then he has the additional
labor of spreading that diluted stuff!
To make this compost be hauled one
load of good mGnure from the stable,
nine loads of worse than nothing,
from weed fields and muck beds. To
spread the original one LOAF of ma
nure, he must nov spread in addition
nine loads of inert matter.
In composing, the farmer should
carefully estimate the value of the
materials used in the distance such
materials must be hauled. How is he
to know whether or not his muck
supply has a suficiency of fertilizing
matter in it to make it of value in the
compost heap? He may test it by
applying it alone. If it be vGlueless
when separately applied, no amount
of composing will add to its fertility
except as it absorbs active principles
from other components of the heap.
Indeed, its chief value, in it's best
form, consists in its absorbing powers.
A suficiency to take up and hold all
liquid products accommodating in stables
and about the barn should be amply
provided for. There can % no doubt
of its utility when thus us,sd.
What l mean to exp SO in this
article is the practice OF many farmers
to gather everything !: discriminatory
from everywhere, wtsout a thought
of its value, and han ing the same,
often considerable di 'ances, to com,
post heaps to be again rehauled and
applied. Even where the materials
are worth hauling, b~ter let one ap-
peration answer and sproad at the first
hauling. 1t is simply a mistake to
suppose that we can make manure by
hauling in bulk that which is not ma
nure, that which does not rot into ma
nure, that which undergoes no change,
that which does not make it's insoluble
constituents soluble. l enter my pro.
test in the interest Of pr, 6table farm
ing, in the interest OF an educated
agriculture, against farmers working
so thoughtlessly as not to recognize
whether or not an expensive operation
is an advantage. Muck often has a
fine physical effect upon the soil.
Where this effect is needed and the
supply is not too far away, then apply
it direct, thus saving two landings
and one haulings) after first having,
in a small way, tested it's utility.
Some muck has a value as a f~ertilizing
agent. When this, on a small scale,
is demonstrated, then use it. But be
careful that the labor and expense of
applying it be not greater than the
enhanced profit arising from It's use.
J.. D. HODGES.