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