be moist and kept covered with
a layer of muck of several inches of thickness. This sort of compost
would probably be sufficiently fermented in a week or two of warm
weather, and should be made and kept under cover.

If no more than five or six parts of muck to one of guano are employed,
the compost, according to the experience of Simon Brown, Esq., of the
Boston _Cultivator_, (Patent Office Report for 1856), will prove
injurious, if placed in the hill in contact with seed, but may be
applied broadcast without danger.

The _Menhaden_ or "_White fish_", so abundantly caught along our Sound
coast during the summer months, or any variety of fish may be composted
with muck, so as to make a powerful manure, with avoidance of the
excessively disagreeable stench which is produced when these fish are
put directly on the land. Messrs. Stephen Hoyt & Sons, of New Canaan,
Conn., make this compost on a large scale. I cannot do better than to
give entire Mr. Edwin Hoyt's account of their operations, communicated
to me several years ago.

"During the present season, (1858,) we have composted about 200,000
white fish with about 700 loads (17,500 bushels) of muck. We vary the
proportions somewhat according to the crop the compost is intended for.
For rye we apply 20 to 25 loads per acre of a compost made with 4,500
fish, (one load) and with this manuring, no matter how poor the soil,
the rye will be as large as a man can cradle. Much of ours we have to
reap. For oats we use less fish, as this crop is apt to lodge. For corn,
one part fish to ten or twelve muck is about right, while for grass or
any top-dressing, the proportion of fish may be increased."

"We find it is best to mix the fish in the summer and not use the
compost until the next spring and summer. Yet we are obliged to use in
September for our winter rye a great deal of the compost made in July.
We usually compost the first arrivals of fish in June for our winter
grain; after this pile has stood three or four weeks, it is worked over
thoroughly. In this space of time the fish become pretty well
decomposed, though they still preserve their form and smell
outrageously. As the pile is worked over, a sprinkling of muck or
plaster is given to retain any escaping ammonia. At the time of use in
September the fish have completely disappeared, bones and fins
excepted."

"The effect on the muck is to blacken it and make it more loose and
crumbly. As to the results of the use o