FERTILIZED RUBBISH.
The science of culture grows faster, perhaps, than most of us realize. The best of modern instances, that begin to benefit the smallest gardener as well as the largest farmer, may be traced to Rothamsted, the oldest agricultural station in the world. One peculiarly interests me because I saw the early experiments ; and it may be said to have just reached its greatest triumph.. It was discovered that cellulose, to wit, straw, leaves, grass, vegetable fibre and what not, could be broken down and converted into what we call farmyard manure without being trodden by animals. Water plus some simple chemicals creates the conditions which enable the beneficent bacteria to rot the vegetable material and produce a substance very like farmyard manure in appearance as well as in manurial value. The Rothamsted recipe has since been christened Adco ; but thousands of gardeners in many countries are using the discovery in one form or another, and regularly convert their garden rubbish into a valuable fertiliser. The latest triumph is not in Britain but in the semi-tropics. The process has been found effective even with that obstinate material, cocoanut fibre. On the other hand, rye straw is still defiant.
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