Common Ground

By 1943 [creating humus] had become a matter of great discussion among garden experts (and the farming community) both in New Zealand and throughout the British Empire. The Compost Club, one of Guy Chapman’s organisations, led the charge, promoting the ‘hot composting’ system developed in India by Sir Albert Howard, a principal figure in the early organic movement within the empire …

For some time the [Canterbury branch of the Compost Club] had maintained its own column in the Press, penned by committee members on a roster basis under the pseudonym ‘Humus’.

‘The great improvements noted by scientific agriculturists of incorporating compost in the soil have been so startling that some