Post by Jay Blair on Oct 4, 2005 15:16:01 GMT -5
While visiting the Journey to Forever website I found the book "Pay Dirt , Farming and growing with Compost by J.I.Rhodale onine there. It is a publication on compost manufacturing written in 1946.
While long , it is organized into chapters and I thought it might be a useful study text to better understanding compost. Even being 50 years old, it offers some unique insight and of course historicl information.
This excerpt is from Section 2, chapter 8 :
"In Thomas J. Barrett's book on the earthworm there is a chapter that describes a natural method of making compost used by Dr. George Oliver's grandfather, part of which is given here because it is so apt:
"In the center of the barnyard was the compost pit, which, in the light of modern technical knowledge, I now know to have been the most perfect and scientific fertilizer production unit I have ever known. This pit was 50 feet wide and 100 feet long and had been excavated to a depth of two feet. At each end, evenly spaced from side to side and about 20 feet from the end, was deeply anchored a heavy log post, probably 12 to 15 feet high, with an overhead cable anchored to each post and running to the barn. On these cables were large traveling baskets. Thus, each morning the manure from the great barn was transported in these baskets to the compost pit and evenly spread in a uniform layer, by means of the post in each end of the pit, the manure being dumped at the most convenient point for proper handling. By means of the automatic dump baskets and overhead trolley, it was possible to quickly clear the barn of the night droppings and deposit the material in the compost pit without any loss of the valuable elements of the fresh manure."
The book in is entirety can be viewed at
journeytoforever.org/farm_library/paydirt/paydirt_ToC.html
While long , it is organized into chapters and I thought it might be a useful study text to better understanding compost. Even being 50 years old, it offers some unique insight and of course historicl information.
This excerpt is from Section 2, chapter 8 :
"In Thomas J. Barrett's book on the earthworm there is a chapter that describes a natural method of making compost used by Dr. George Oliver's grandfather, part of which is given here because it is so apt:
"In the center of the barnyard was the compost pit, which, in the light of modern technical knowledge, I now know to have been the most perfect and scientific fertilizer production unit I have ever known. This pit was 50 feet wide and 100 feet long and had been excavated to a depth of two feet. At each end, evenly spaced from side to side and about 20 feet from the end, was deeply anchored a heavy log post, probably 12 to 15 feet high, with an overhead cable anchored to each post and running to the barn. On these cables were large traveling baskets. Thus, each morning the manure from the great barn was transported in these baskets to the compost pit and evenly spread in a uniform layer, by means of the post in each end of the pit, the manure being dumped at the most convenient point for proper handling. By means of the automatic dump baskets and overhead trolley, it was possible to quickly clear the barn of the night droppings and deposit the material in the compost pit without any loss of the valuable elements of the fresh manure."
The book in is entirety can be viewed at
journeytoforever.org/farm_library/paydirt/paydirt_ToC.html
