Making Vermicompost 

Vermicompost can be made from both cowdung and buffalo dung.  
The pit should be lined, to ensure that the worms do not 
escape to the earth nearby. Cardboard would be okay - brick 
and cement the ideal one. For trial you can just use a big 
barrel, with a small hole on the side at the bottom to drain 
off excess water. 

Fill the dung upto say three feet height, and then put a 
thin layer of fine soil on it. Put some live earthworms 
into the dung. The barrel should be in the shade. Water the 
pit/barrel/ structure once in a while, to ensure that the 
dung is slightly wet. (If it is bone dry, nothing can happen!). 

Cover the barrel with some leaves or straw. After a few weeks 
you will find the worms multiplying. Also the dung will 
slowly turn into a fine mixture. Continue to water the 
dung and keep it covered. If the atmospheric temperature, 
solar radiation, wind, and humidity is okay, and you have 
kept the dung slightly wet, and covered, and not allowed the 
earthworms to escape, in a few months the dung would become 
a fine mixture. 

This is vermicompost. Take it out, sieve it and pack it for sale or use.

From pankaj jain Tue Jan 13 08:08:50 2004
j_pankaj4@rediffmail.com 
**********
You can also use an old silage pit if there's one on your farm/homestead.

And can mix in most any organic material you can get free for the taking. Saw 
dust, wood chips, bagged leaves, resturant or cafe trash, shredded paper, 
cardboard, dryer lint, rotting hay: and many more things.

Jon
