Translations:Benutzer:Arian/Klett-Mini-Test/1108/en

In his extensive studies of the life of the compost heap, Bockemühl traced in compost trials (referred to below as BKV) with a mixture of cow and horse manure a series of life processes that unfold in the heap from setting up to maturity. These confirm in detail the four phases of compost development familiar to the attentive practitioner — on the basis of various measurement data in temporal sequence, and above all on the basis of the appearance and disappearance of various groups of organisms during these four phases. As a representative of the processes of decomposition and transformation in the heap, Bockemühl chose the species-rich group of springtails (Collembola), which, after the red compost worm (Eisenia foetida), carry out the main work of conversion. In this connection it must, however, be emphasised that their activity — like that of the ringed worms, threadworms, insect larvae, and the seemingly endless multitude of microbes — is in each case a symptom of a web of relationships that must be grasped as a wholeness. The conditions for the formation of this wholeness are created by the hand of the human being. That these four phases unite, in a being-way proper to themselves, into an organ within the organism of agriculture — this requires the continuous attention and the nurturing hand.