280 BOAED OP AGRICULTURE. [Jan., 



would recommend for New England country homes as the 

 best method of disposing of refuse matters. 



Prof. Brewer. I will tell you what I would do if I had a 

 country house. I would take care of my liquid slops, and 

 have them run into a tub, and I would have handles to it, so 

 that it could be carried off a few rods from the house and the 

 contents dumped upon the ground for manure. They oxidize 

 pretty rapidly in that way. As regards the other matters, I 

 think I should be governed by circumstances. If I used an 

 ordinary privy, I should disinfect it with lime. That is what 

 I used to do in olden time, when I lived in the country. The 

 disinfection is complete and the deodorizing is complete. Of 

 course, the vault must be kept dry; and, with all its dis- 

 advantages, I believe that the earth-closet is eminently 

 practical, I have seen within the last year, in the suburbs 

 of a large city that was not provided with sewers at all, 

 where you would think the problem was a great deal more 

 complicated than in an ordinary country house, (it was, I may 

 say, in the city of Minneapolis,) a number of families that 

 had transformed their old-fashioned privies into earth-closet 

 arrangements. Dry earth was collected in the summer and 

 put into barrels (it was the dust of the road), and a barrel of 

 this dust was set in the old-fashioned establishment that they 

 had back of their houses. The material was dropped into a 

 wooden box, and once a year that was shoveled out, and 

 found perfectly innocuous by the farmer who took it away. 

 He said it was worth to him the cost of hauling. I have 

 known several cases in the country where the earth-closet has 

 been used successfully. The only trouble is tlie care that is 

 required to have dry dirt always on hand. That is liable to 

 be neglected. 



Mr. . I have noticed that the removal of the filth 



from the vaults in cities is very disagreeable. This may be 

 easily avoided. At my own home, the coal ashes are thrown 

 daily directly into the vault. The result is that in the spring, 

 when the vault is cleaned out to go out on the farm, there is 

 no odor ; the men find no difficulty about it. Whether coal 



