186 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



proved that they can do it profitably here. As many of you 

 know, I am a farmer myself; and I have for the last eight 

 or ten years used considerable night-soil. I have labored 

 under a great deal of difficulty in getting good material. 

 The habits of our people are very different from those of 

 the people of China, or even of Paris. We use a great deal 

 of water here. They do not consider it necessary to wash 

 their faces every morning. In China they get along with 

 very little water. Our people use a great deal of water ; and 

 where does it go ? They have pipes leading from their wash- 

 bowls and bath-tubs and the kitchen-sink ; and this water all 

 empties itself into the cesspool, and there it is mixed with 

 the washings of the water-closet. Consequently, instead of 

 getting what the lecturer has told us in night-soil, we get a 

 certain quantity of night-soil and a certain quantity of urine 

 mingled with an uncertain quantity of water ; and we have 

 to pay for the water, which we do not want. There is one 

 of the great difficulties. We have so much water mixed 

 with it, and there is so much labor involved in the applicar 

 tion of night-soil, that it does not pay, unless we can have a 

 very good article, and mix it with absorbents that do not cost 

 any thing. We haul a great deal of horse-manure from the 

 stables, which in summer time is very dry, and mix the 

 night-soil with that, and find our account in it. But we do 

 not find any profit in night-soil as we get it. If the habits 

 of our people could be so changed that they could do with- 

 out water, we might be able to use night-soil with profit ; or 

 if they would keep the water they use separate from the 

 products of their water-closets, so that the night-soil would 

 be a pure article, it might pay us to use it : but we all know 

 that the tendency is to use more and more water. All our 

 towns and cities are increasing their water-supplies. It comes 

 into the house of every man who can afford it, and into the 

 houses of a great many who cannot afford it ; and, after they 

 have used it, the water must go somewhere. They do not 

 take pains to keep it from the water-closet. 



This is, you see, a most serious problem, and has attracted 

 the attention of the ablest engineers in this neighborhood. 

 It is not very long since the city of Boston voted to expend 

 many millions to improve their drainage system. They 

 found the nuisance which has been alluded to, and it has be- 



