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[Gene GeRue <genegerue AT ruralize.com>]

> And what you are describing is mulch, not compost.

I should have distinguished between your in situ composting practice 
and what you correctly say the big farms are not doing. The best that 
large-acreage operators could do would be the kind of composting 
operations one sees at the edge of cities, where all organic matter 
collected by parks and street departments is composted in huge rows 
and turned by large machines. The cost of such an operation would 
likely make it uneconomical unless the raw product were free, as in 
cities, where the cost of collection is paid by the citizens.

If one has limited gardening space, then high-quality compost will 
raise yields to their optimal level. I have unlimited space and am 
lazy so I prefer to use more space, have more plants with lower 
yields and often less disease and insect predation with the greater 
spacing. Yes, vibrantly healthy plants discourage pests and disease, 
so both systems work, it's a question of how hard you like to work. I 
have written before of my concept of the scattered garden. Mostly I 
just pile grass clippings and chopped leaves on top of the beds and 
let the soil organisms do all the work of converting humus to plant 
food. This is not composting; this is mulching. When I get chickens 
next year and add their droppings to the mulch, then I will be closer 
to a composting operation.

Another issue is humus percentage within the root zone. Humus is 
organic material. The pH tolerance of plants is widened with humus. 
Humus also retains moisture in the root zone. It is almost impossible 
to keep too much humus in soil. We lazy gardeners--which is to say 
experienced--likely have less soil humus than is optimal. Keeping a 
high percentage of humus in the top root zone requires yearly mixing 
because soil organisms love you for bringing groceries down to them 
and they eat and multiply like crazy, never saving for days of 
famine. Which is to say they deplete humus quickly.

Finished compost is the crumbly, nice-smelling result of organisms 
digesting a balanced mixture of nitrogenous and carbonaceous 
materials. The quality of finished compost depends on the nature and 
variety of the raw materials. Many gardeners add various minerals to 
their compost piles. This is appropriate if produce is sold or wastes 
are not utilized. If the gardener has a closed loop of nutrients, 
from garden to kitchen and animals and back to garden, then minerals 
may not become depleted without importation. If you have a flush 
toilet you do not have a closed loop.

Jerome Rodale introduced compost knowledge to America through his 
writings and publications. His early compost instruction required 
that compost pile reach a high internal temperature. This typically 
requires a lot of nitrogen and also requires turning the pile so it 
"finished" equally throughout. Smart guy, he didn't embrace the work 
required so he recommended that the compost piler make carefully 
calculated layers of different materials.

Way too much work for me.