process.  Of this Howard said, “[where] there may be insufficient dung and urine earth for converting large quantities of vegetable wastes which are available, the shortage may be made up by the use of nitrate of soda . . .  If such artificials are employed, it will be a great advantage to make use of soil.”  I am sure he would have made very similar comments about adding soil when using chicken manure, or organic concentrates like seed meals, as cattle manure substitutes.

Control of the air supply is the most difficult part of composting.  First, the process must stay aerobic.  That is one reason that single-material heaps fail because they tend to pack too tightly.  To facilitate air exchange, the pits or heaps were never more than two feet deep.  Where air was insufficient (though still aerobic) decay is retarded but worse, a process called denitrification occurs in which nitrates and ammonia are biologically broken down into gasses and permanently lost.  Too much manure and urine-earth can also interfere with aeration by making the heap too heavy, establishing anaerobic conditions.  The chart illustrates denitrification caused by insufficient aeration compared to turning the composting process into a biological nitrate factory with optimum aeration.

Making Indore Compost in Deep and Shallow Pits

Pit 4 feet deep Pit 2 feet deep
Amount of material (lb. wet)
in pit at start 4,500 4,514
Total nitrogen (lb) at start 31.25 29.12
Total nitrogen at end 29.49 32.36
Loss or gain of nitrogen (lb) -1.76 +3.24
Percentage loss or gain of nitrogen -6.1% +11.1%

Finally, modern gardeners might reconsider limiting temperature during composting.  India is a very warm climate with balmy nights most of the year.  Heaps two or three feet high will achieve an initial temperature of about 145 degree.  The purchase of a thermometer with a long probe and a little experimentation will show you the dimensions that will more-or-less duplicate Howard’s temperature regimes in your climate with your materials.

Inoculants

Howard’s technique of mass inoculation with large amounts of biologically active material from older compost heaps speeds and directs decomposition.  It supplies large numbers of the most useful types of microorganisms so they dominate the heap’s ecology before other less desirable types can establish significant populations.  I can’t imagine how selling mass inoculants could be turned into a business.

But just imagine that seeding a new heap with tiny amounts of superior microorganisms could speed initial decomposition and result in a much better product.  That could be a business.  Such an approach is not without precedent.  Brewers, vintners, and bread makers all do that.  And ever since composting became interesting to twentieth-century farmers and gardeners, entrepreneurs have been concocting compost starters that are intended to be added by the ounce(s) to the cubic yard.