Watch Plant Canteen – A Compost Heap – 1944 cartoon
1944 Cartoon – Ministry of Agriculture & Fisheries “Dig For Victory Leaflet No 7
Commentary – “Thanks Mr Middleton. Mr Middleton – Good Afternoon, we all expect vegetables to feed us but we’ve got to see that we feed them properly too. Suppose we get down to the root of the matter. Plants need food just as much as we do, and it must be in a form they can assimilated. This is where humas comes in. Humas is composed mainly of decayed vegetable matter.
By putting humas in the soil plus a few handfuls of chemical fertiliser you make sure that the plant has enough to eat. One of the best sources of humas is the compost heap. It really acts as a sort of canteen for the plants. Simple and cheap its mainly garden waste, its easy to make a compost heap and if you want it in time for next seasons crop now is a good time to start. PLANT – That’s right, now is a good time to start.”
Shot List: CARTOON – Vegetable growing and then thanking Mr Middleton. Shots of Mr Middleton talking to the screen. Shots of a plant and its roots. Shot of a Compost Heap. Plants underground taking Nitrogen potash phosphates to other plants. Feeding the plant. Compost Heap. Mr Middleton talking. Plant talking.
From the Victory Edition 1919 ‘War Gardening and Home Storage of Vegetables’
Compost is especially desirable when quick growth is wanted. Compost is thoroughly rotted manure or organic material. It is prepared from six to twelve months before being used, by putting the manure and other material in piles having perpendicular sides and flat tops. These piles are usually from 2 to 4 feet high and 6 to 8 feet long.
Besides the usual waste of garden rubbish, there is a large waste of leaves, weeds and the skins and other unused portions of fruits and vegetables. These should all be thrown on the compost pile to decay for use on the garden next spring.
Destroy all plants which are diseased. The compost pile should be built up in alternate layers of vegetable refuse a foot thick and earth an inch or more thick. The earth helps to rot the vegetable matter when mixed with it. The top of the pile should be left flat that the rain may enter and help in the process of decay.
If the pile can be forked over once a month when not frozen and the contents well mixed together, they will decay quite rapidly and be in good usable condition in the spring. The compost may be either spread over hte garden and plowed under or it may be scattered in the rows before the seed are sown. This is, of course, not as rich as stable manure, but it is a good substitute.
Compost is also used as a top dressing during the growing season for hastening growth.
In the cities and towns tons of leaves are burned every fall. This is a loss which ought to be prevented. These leaves properly composted with other vegetable waste and earth would be worth hundreds of dollars to the gardens next spring.
In planning a permanent garden, a space should be reserved near the hotbed or seed bed, and in this space should be piled, as soon as pulled, all plants which are free from diseases and insects. This applies to all vegetables and especially to peas and beans, as these belong to a group of plants which take nitrogen from the air, during growth, and and store it in their roots.
When these plants are decayed they will return to the soil not only much of the plant food taken from it during their growth but additional nitrogen as well. Nitrogen in the soil is necessary for satisfactory leaf growth. The material so composted should be allowed to decay throughout the winter, and when needed should be used according to the instructions given for using compost.
See complete 1919 War Gardening and Home Storage of Vegetables publication here.
Today (2008) on the Compost Hotline, we don’t advise adding soil to the compost pile unless we are trying to stop a fruit fly outbreak in which case we suggest capping the pile with an inch of soil. We layer our piles with leaves rather than soil. (Mike)
1944 Cartoon – Ministry of Agriculture & Fisheries “Dig For Victory Leaflet No 7
Commentary – “Thanks Mr Middleton. Mr Middleton – Good Afternoon, we all expect vegetables to feed us but we’ve got to see that we feed them properly too. Suppose we get down to the root of the matter. Plants need food just as much as we do, and it must be in a form they can assimilated. This is where humas comes in. Humas is composed mainly of decayed vegetable matter.
By putting humas in the soil plus a few handfuls of chemical fertiliser you make sure that the plant has enough to eat. One of the best sources of humas is the compost heap. It really acts as a sort of canteen for the plants. Simple and cheap its mainly garden waste, its easy to make a compost heap and if you want it in time for next seasons crop now is a good time to start. PLANT – That’s right, now is a good time to start.”
Shot List: CARTOON – Vegetable growing and then thanking Mr Middleton. Shots of Mr Middleton talking to the screen. Shots of a plant and its roots. Shot of a Compost Heap. Plants underground taking Nitrogen potash phosphates to other plants. Feeding the plant. Compost Heap. Mr Middleton talking. Plant talking.
Making Compost in 1919
From the Victory Edition 1919 ‘War Gardening and Home Storage of Vegetables’
Compost is especially desirable when quick growth is wanted. Compost is thoroughly rotted manure or organic material. It is prepared from six to twelve months before being used, by putting the manure and other material in piles having perpendicular sides and flat tops. These piles are usually from 2 to 4 feet high and 6 to 8 feet long.
Besides the usual waste of garden rubbish, there is a large waste of leaves, weeds and the skins and other unused portions of fruits and vegetables. These should all be thrown on the compost pile to decay for use on the garden next spring.
Destroy all plants which are diseased. The compost pile should be built up in alternate layers of vegetable refuse a foot thick and earth an inch or more thick. The earth helps to rot the vegetable matter when mixed with it. The top of the pile should be left flat that the rain may enter and help in the process of decay.
If the pile can be forked over once a month when not frozen and the contents well mixed together, they will decay quite rapidly and be in good usable condition in the spring. The compost may be either spread over hte garden and plowed under or it may be scattered in the rows before the seed are sown. This is, of course, not as rich as stable manure, but it is a good substitute.
Compost is also used as a top dressing during the growing season for hastening growth.
In the cities and towns tons of leaves are burned every fall. This is a loss which ought to be prevented. These leaves properly composted with other vegetable waste and earth would be worth hundreds of dollars to the gardens next spring.
In planning a permanent garden, a space should be reserved near the hotbed or seed bed, and in this space should be piled, as soon as pulled, all plants which are free from diseases and insects. This applies to all vegetables and especially to peas and beans, as these belong to a group of plants which take nitrogen from the air, during growth, and and store it in their roots.
When these plants are decayed they will return to the soil not only much of the plant food taken from it during their growth but additional nitrogen as well. Nitrogen in the soil is necessary for satisfactory leaf growth. The material so composted should be allowed to decay throughout the winter, and when needed should be used according to the instructions given for using compost.
See complete 1919 War Gardening and Home Storage of Vegetables publication here.
Today (2008) on the Compost Hotline, we don’t advise adding soil to the compost pile unless we are trying to stop a fruit fly outbreak in which case we suggest capping the pile with an inch of soil. We layer our piles with leaves rather than soil. (Mike)