Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1892-10-13
The Making of Composts.

Recent discoveries in regard to
the natural production of available
nitrogen in the soil go to confirm
the wisdom of some practices
which have heen in vogue for CEN
turies, though now nearly obsolete
except among the old-fashioned
farmers. One of these practices is
tho making of composts. While
no one will underate the value OF
commercial fertilizers for the
growth of crops, there is no reason
why the old methods of providing
manure should become obsolete.
There is, room for every: useful
practise still, and as the making OF
manure is one of the indispens-
able processes of the farm work it
must not be disused because we
can purchase more concentrated
fertilizers. For if, by mere labor,
a large quantity of rich compost
may be made without the, expen-
diture of money, all this thus
gained is so much saved.
There is nothing in the best ma
nure that does not exist in the
common materials that make
composts. Vegetable matter,
either fresh or decayed, contains
all the elements Of yard manure,
and it only remains for the farmer
to gather whatever he can can and
decompose the mass. It has long
been known that mixture OF
vegetable matter with moist earth
and lime, if heaped and exposed to
the heat of the summer, becomes
exceedingly rich in nitric acid, and
this acid combining with the lime
and forming nitrate of lime, years
ago, furnished. tho only source
from which the saltpetre (nitrate Of
pota h J for making gunpewder was
procured.
In the compost heap we provide
the food 1or the germs whose pur-
pose in nature, as we have learned
quite recently, is to change the
ammonia of decaying matters into
nitrous acid, and then into nitric
aoid, which is the special nitro
genous food for plants. And this
recent knowledge explains the
reason why the composts. made by
the old farmers we're 80 valuable,
and such an economical method OF
improving the soil. Not under
standing this, We have to a large
extent, ignored this practice, but
now it 10 necessary to reinstate it
as ole of the most profitable
methods of making manure.
Every plant that grows contains
the gathered elements of the fool
upon which it has grown. We
know that the ashes of trees and
plants, for instance, contain most
valuable fertilizing properties,
and necessarily the tree or plant
itself must contain the same ele-
ments. And more. because some
thing is lost in the burning, and
this happens to be the very y, yalu-
able heterogeneous substances. Thus,
weeds. decaying wood. leaves and
all such matters, leaf mould,
swamp muck, earth from bitches,
old barnyards and from fence
rows, all heaped, with a small
quantity of stable manure to
start the action and lime to fix
the nitric acid produced, will
make richer MANURE than that
-L;sl, -t1>e-etahlee.
And just now, when the profit of
feeding cattle is small, this fact is
worthy of the notice of every far
mer. Weeds should be cut be-
fore the blossom has -matured, 80
as to avoid seeding the ground
again, for it is not true, as is often
thought, that the heat of a man.
ure heap will destory weed seeds.
To make as much manure as possi-
BILE in this way, it often becomes
desirable to add to these heaps,
for the enrichment of the compost,
other fertilizers purchased for the
purpose, such as superphosphate,,
plaster and even yard manure.
The compost heap is the farmers
savings bank, in which he may
deposit small savings as we'll as