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Compost of a kind has been made at Chipoli for a number of years, but till Sir Albert Howard's methods were mastered some years ago the waste of material had been considerable, the product unsatisfactory, and the cost, in comparison with that now produced, high.
Deep pits were used and the process was chicfly carried out under anaerobic conditions, with the result that it took many months and most of the nitrogen was lost. Farm-yard manure was stored either in the stockyards or in large solid heaps, with the result that when the mass was broken up to be carted on to the fields most of the nitrogen had been lost, and much of the coarse grass, reeds, and similar matter used for bedding remained fairly well preserved, much as bog oak in the mud, and the process of decomposition remained to be completed in the soil with the growing crop, much to the detriment of the latter.