in the sun to prevent their premature decomposition, and then taking great care to preserve a uniform mixture of vegetation types when charging his compost pits.  This strategy can be duplicated by the home gardener.  Howard was surprised to discover that he could compost all the crop waste he had available with only half the urine earth and about one-quarter of the oxen manure he had available.  But fresh manure and urine earth were essential.

During the 1920s a patented process for making compost with a chemical fertilizer called Adco was in vogue and Howard tried it.  Of using chemicals he said: 

“The weak point of Adco is that it does nothing to overcome one of the great difficulties in composting, namely the absorption of moisture in the early stages.  In hot weather in India, the Adco pits lose moisture so rapidly that the fermentation stops, the temperature becomes uneven and then falls.  When, however, urine earth and cow-dung are used, the residues become covered with a thin colloidal film, which not only retains moisture but contains combined nitrogen and minerals required by the fungi.  This film enables the moisture to penetrate the mass and helps the fungi to establish themselves.  Another disadvantage of Adco is that when this material is used according to the directions, the carbon-nitrogen ratio of the final product is narrower than the ideal 10:1.  Nitrogen is almost certain to be lost before the crop can make use of it”

Fresh cow manure contains digestive enzymes and living bacteria that specialize in cellulose decomposition.  Having a regular supply of this material helped initiate decomposition without delay.  Contributing large quantities of actively growing microorganisms through mass inoculation with material from a two-week-old pile also helped.  The second mass inoculation at two weeks, with material from a month-old heap provided a large supply of the type of organisms required when the heap began cooling.  City gardeners without access to fresh manure may compensate for this lack by imitating Howard’s mass inoculation technique, starting smaller amounts of compost in a series of bins and mixing into each bin a bit of material from the one further along at each turning.  The passive backyard composting container automatically duplicates this advantage.  It simultaneously contains all decomposition stages and inoculates the material above by contact with more decomposed material below.  Using prepared inoculants in a continuous composting bin is unnecessary.

City gardeners cannot readily obtain urine earth.  Nor are American country gardeners with livestock likely to be willing to do so much work.  Remember that Howard used urine earth for three reasons.  One, it contained a great deal of nitrogen and improved the starting C/N of the heap.  Second, it is thrifty.  Over half the nutrient content of the food passing through cattle is discharged in the urine.  But, equally important, soil itself was beneficial to the