first. Opinion also preponderates in favor of stirring, during or
after the fermentation.

Mr. Hoyt remarks:--"We are convinced, that the oftener a compost pile of
yard manure and muck is worked over after fermenting, the better. We
work it over and add to it a little more muck and other material, and
the air being thus allowed to penetrate it, a new fermentation or
heating takes place, rendering it more decomposable and valuable."

Rev. Wm. Clift, writes:--"Three or four loads of muck to one of stable
manure, put together in the fall or winter in alternate layers, forked
over twice before spreading and plowing in, may represent the method of
composting."

Mr. Adams White, of Brooklyn, Conn., proceeds in a different manner. He
says:--"In composting, 20 loads are drawn on to upland in September, and
thrown up in a long pile. Early in the spring 20 loads of stable manure
are laid along side, and covered with the muck. As soon as it has heated
moderately, the whole is forked over and well mixed."

Those who have practiced making peat composts with their yard, stable,
and pen manure, almost invariably find them highly satisfactory in use,
especially upon light soils.

A number of years ago, I saw a large pile of compost in the farm-yard of
Mr. Pond, of Milford, Conn., and witnessed its effect as applied by that
gentleman to a field of sixteen acres of fine gravelly or coarse sandy
soil. The soil, from having a light color and excessive porosity, had
become dark, unctuous, and retentive of moisture, so that during the
drouth of 1856, the crops on this field were good and continued to
flourish, while on the contiguous land they were dried up and nearly
ruined. This compost was made from a light muck, that contained but
three _per cent._ of ash (more than half of which was sand), and but 1.2
_per cent._ of nitrogen, in the air-dry state--(twenty _per cent._ of
water). Three loads of this muck were used to one of stable manure.

Here follow some estimates of the value of this compost by practical
men. They are given to show that older statements, to the same effect,
cannot be regarded as exaggerated.

Mr. J. H. Stanwood, of Colebrook, Conn., says:--"Experiments made by
myself, have confirmed me in the opinion that a compost of equal parts
of muck and stable manure is equal to the same quantity of stable
manure."

Mr. Daniel Buck, Jr., of Poquonock, Conn., remarks:--"8 loads of muck
and 4 of manure in compost, when prop