Composting
SIR,—Your contributor Ian Niall is not, I think, correct in his note on compost in the Spectator of August 22nd. By suitable management of a compost heap a temperature of some 160° F. may be reached inside it, by which all weed seeds and viruses will be destroyed. Also, there need not •be (and should not be) any breeding of flies or any unpleasant smell whatsoever. For example, the " Indore " process devised by the late Sir Albert Howard, and the " Q.R. Method" of Miss Maye Bruce, are entirely effective and are not at all complicated; the latter method is very simple and requires no animal manure and so it is particularly suitable for small gardens and allotments.
The compost-making agents that work by direct chemical means (usually by sulphate of ammonia) are to be eschewed. The resultant compost may look all right, but its value, at any rate as a source of plant food, is nothing like that of compost made by a natural process such as those mentioned above.—Yours faithfully,
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