Farming and Gardening for Health or Disease

The system of composting which I adopted, known as the Indore Process, has already been fully set forth in 1931 and 1940 in two previous books: the detailed description will, therefore, not be repeated here. (The Waste Products of Agriculture; Their Utilization as Humus (Oxford University Press, 1931). An Agricultural Testament (Oxford University Press, 1940).) For those who are not familiar with these accounts it may be briefly stated that the process amounts to the collection and admixture of vegetable and animal wastes off the area farmed into heaps or pits, kept at a degree of moisture resembling that of a squeezed-out sponge, turned, and emerging finally at the end of a period of three months as a rich, crumbling compost, containing a wealth of plant nutrients and organisms essential for growth.

Sufficient time has now elapsed since the publications referred to above to permit of a summary of the history and reception of the process. The review is of interest. Time has sorted out essentials. It has brought no fundamental modification of any kind, but has shown the way to some simplifications which make the process easier both for the large plantation and for the small cultivator, it has indicated where further research and experiment could very advantageously be directed, and it has, above all, provided an interesting example of the way in which a new presentation of a very old and well-tried idea has been warmly accepted by the practical man and given a most unfortunate cold shouldering by the leaders of agricultural education and research.