To make compost rot rapidly you need to achieve a strong and lasting
rise in temperature. Cold piles will eventually decompose and humus
will eventually form but, without heat, the process can take a long,
long time. Getting a pile to heat up promptly and stay hot requires
the right mixture of materials and a sensible handling of the pile's
air and moisture supply.

Compost piles come with some built-in obstacles. The intense heat
and biological activity make a heap slump into an airless mass, yet
if composting is to continue the pile must allow its living
inhabitants sufficient air to breath. Hot piles tend to dry out
rapidly, but must be kept moist or they stop working. But heat is
desirable and watering cools a pile down. If understood and managed,
these difficulties are really quite minor.

Composting is usually an inoffensive activity, but if done
incorrectly there can be problems with odor and flies. This chapter
will show you how to make nuisance-free compost.

Hot Composting

The main difference between composting in heaps and natural
decomposition on the earth's surface is temperature. On the forest
floor, leaves leisurely decay and the primary agents of
decomposition are soil animals. Bacteria and other microorganisms
are secondary. In a compost pile the opposite occurs: we substitute
a violent fermentation by microorganisms such as bacteria and fungi.
Soil animals are secondary and come into play only after the
microbes have had their hour.