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Outline For Composting Essay

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Woods Pate
Thesis Outline #1 (Botany/Sustainable Horticulture)

1) Although it is difficult to pin down the origin of composting, it is known that many ancient civilizations throughout history have used it to enhance crop output. The earliest records and archeological evidence involve people using animal or human manure to fertilize the land. The first written account of composting was carved in the Akkadian Empire around 2320 BC, when they realized that crops grew better where manure was deposited. (CarryOnComposting) In first century China, Fan Sheng-Chih Su wrote that they used bones, manure, and silkworm debris to enrich their farming soil. (Composting for the Homeowner) The Greeks, Egyptians, and Romans all took straw form animal stalls and buried it in crop fields. Both the Bible and the Talmud contain references to using manure, …show more content…

Even Native Americans had a form of composting; they used fish and other animal parts as a nutrient source when planting crops. However, despite our extensive history of using compost as organic fertilizers, in the 19th century the discovery that plants were able to obtain nourishment from chemicals in solution by the German scientist called Justus von Liebig led to a decrease in the use of compost and an increase in the use of chemical fertilizers. Before this, it was believed that all plants absorbed nutrients directly from humus. This discovery led people to think that all was necessary to aid plant growth were the addition of chemical solutions. Despite this, in recent years the composting movement has regained its momentum due a vast array of factors such as the growing environmental awareness of the population and simply the

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