USE OF NIGHT-SOIL. 171 



He wlio can lift or lighten this tax by supplementing the 

 supply of the fertilizing material, by diminishing its cost, or 

 by saving labor in the manner of its application, is a benefac- 

 tor indeed, not only to the husbandman, but to the entire 

 human family. The application of the science of chemistry 

 to agriculture has given us the constituents of every plant 

 we raise : it has also made us acquainted with the ingredi- 

 ents contained in the liquid and solid excrements of man 

 and animals. We are told, that, in the application of these, 

 "we restore to our fields the ashes of the plants wliich 

 served to nourish these animals ; " that these ashes consist of 

 certain soluble salts and insoluble earths, which a fertile soil 

 must yield as indispensable to the growth of cultivated plants. 

 Knowing, then, that the constituents of food pass over into 

 the urine and the excrements of the animal which consumes 

 it, we come to the grand conclusion which Liebig sums up 

 in these words : namely, " The solid and liquid excrements of 

 an animal are of the highest value as manure for those plants 

 which furnished food to the animal.''^ Now, bearing these prin- 

 ciples in mind, let us pass one step further. Man, as the lord 

 of creation, tills the soil ; he domesticates and subjugates to 

 his use the cattle, and the smaller animals which pasture on 

 a thousand hills. He has also made the birds of the air 

 and the feathered tribe, to be, with animals, dependent upon 

 him ; he tills the sqil, to raise food for the support of these 

 as well as for himself, and, in turn, he is fed and nourished 

 by their bodies. Does it not follow, then, as a certainty, that 

 the constituents removed from the soil, and represented in the 

 bodies of these animals, — in the grain, vegetables, and fruit 

 consumed by man, — may all be found in his own liquid and 

 solid excrements, and in the bones of the slaughtered animals 

 eaten by him ? This consequence brings us to our theme, — 

 the highest type of all manures, night-soil. We propose to 

 consider the subject under these three heads : First, the his- 

 tory of its use ; second, its value and the advantage it pos- 

 sesses over other fertilizers ; third, the care of it, with its 

 preparation or mode of handling. 



If we seek the origin of its use, we must, undoubtedly, 

 look to the Chinese, the oldest agricultural people of whom 

 we have any knowledge. We find a people inhabiting a 

 country with an area of 1,297,999 square miles, with a popu- 



