20 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



holding your nose, or stepping into filth, over shoes? And 

 yet these very sights and smells are preparing, perhaps, some 

 of this audience for the typhoid fever, which may take a life, 

 certainly will take all the strength of the family to care for, 

 and possibly all the earnings for a year. A farmer, mechanic, 

 or any other man or woman controlling a homestead in New 

 England, is culpable, negligently culpable, if they allow a 

 stinking cesspool, barn-yard, or anything of the sort on their 

 premises.. Such a thing is not a necessity, or even an excus- 

 able negligence. For but a small quantity of coal or wood 

 ashes, or loam, if only perfectly dry, is a complete disinfect- 

 ant for this poison ; it will absorb incredible amounts. 



And the absolute money profits of saving the drainage of 

 the house is wonderful. For in most of our houses it is safe 

 to say that, during the year, two barrels of soft soap are used 

 and a number of pounds of hard soap. Here, then, are per- 

 haps fifty pounds of soluble potash which are only of use to 

 enrich the coarse weeds about the sink drain. Why not keep 

 a barrel, or box or two, of dry earth close by the sink drain, 

 and every morning and night let a few quarts be thrown in 

 to absorb this most common and enriching food of plants. 

 For I think Prof. Goessmann will tell us that all land-plants 

 contain potash as one ingredient of their structure. 



When one visits any of the older countries of the world, 

 he is always struck with the careful saving of the drainage 

 and waste of the house. And as it is carried about the streets 

 in pails, as if most valuable, he is sure of a precious stench, 

 and presumes that it will be precious food to the crops. He 

 there sees scavengers who more carefully save every bit of 

 excrement than does a thrifty Yankee preserve his scraps of 

 lead, brass and iron. 



But a word for the barn-yard and pigl^en in this direction. 

 If farmers fully appreciated the value of liquid manures, and 

 the best methods of utilizing them, this matter Avould take 

 care of itself. At any rate, my limited time allows me to 

 presume this amount of information on your part. But I 

 must do my best to enforce upon 3'ou that it is of the utmost 

 importance to the health of the household that, during the 

 months of July, August and September, a barn-yard with 



