COMPOST NOTES

Press, Volume LXXXI, Issue 24582, 2 June 1945, Page 5

COMPOST NOTES

[By HUMUS.] Where humus Is lacking. In the soil, through want of organic manure, or overcropping, or both, it has been found that the power of chemical fertilisers to produce results Is nractically nil. The wide and varied significance of this Is ,dealt with in the following comment on the famous Hot Springs Conference.. “It (the conference) Insisted in the urgency of soil conservation, recognising. the vanity of Increasing immediate output while destroying soil and decreasing ultimate productivity.”—Contributed article, "The Press,” October 2, 1343. Coming nearer home, the club, while advocating and teaching the making of

compost by the recognised and proved methods, has declared itself not tied down to orthodoxy. For easy and effective composting of large quantities of material, the writer has found an excellent method In the use of animals. What happens to the material when thrown into the pig run. placed under the feet of horses out of doors, or in places where cattle camp, needs no description. Many people who have no animals own fowls, and the manure taken from .the fowlhouses, if not a true compost, 1$ a very real compound. The straw that is scratched to dust, the wastage from green feed, and perhaps from feeding troughs, combine to produce this result. It Is probable that this and farm wastes generally will be processed, condensed in bulk, and mechanically drilled in as are new commercial fertiliser*,