THE POUDRETTES. 341 



night-soil, in large tanks containing water-tight floors. These 

 tanks are frequently large enough to store five hundred tons 

 at one time. After the material has been left for from four 

 to five months for a thorough disintegration, it is cut through 

 from the surface to the floor, and thereby thoroughly mixed. 

 The fertilizers No. III. and No. IV. are, for economical 

 reasons, best adapted for consumption in the vicinity of 

 the manufacturing establishment, whilst No. I. and No. II., 

 on account of their higher value, may enter with good suc- 

 cess more distant markets. There is scarcely any other 

 class of commercial fertilizers which is apt to suffer as 

 readily a depreciation in value from careless management of 

 its raw material and its mode of manufacture, as the pou- 

 drettes. For this reason, they ought to be sold by analysis ; 

 at least with reference to the amount of ammonia, phosphoric 

 acid, and potassa. A detailed statement of these substances 

 gives a somewhat more definite idea regarding the nature of 

 the excretions which served in their manufacture. It needs 

 no particular argument to show the great value of the human 

 excretions in the agricultural industry, as long as those of 

 our domesticated animals are considered most efficient for the 

 manuring of our farm-lands. 



The food of men, as a general rule, is much richer in the 

 most valuable -elements for plant-growth than that of our 

 farm live-stock: the same relations are true, for obvious 

 reasons, with regard to the excretions of both. To establish 

 that claim among our farmers requires the manufacture of 

 standard articles of definite chemical and physical properties. 

 It is a fact worthy of notice, that, in the most densely popu- 

 lated countries, the superior efficiency of the human excre- 

 tions for manurial purposes has been most decidedly recog- 

 nized. Belgium, like China and Japan, is largely indebted 

 for its high state of cultivation to the extensive use of night- 

 soil as a fertilizer. Prejudice against the more general use 

 of the latter for the reproduction of our garden and farm 

 crops contributes largely to the indifference which still pre- 

 vails among many agriculturists regarding the magnitude of 

 the pecuniary interests involved in the question of securing 

 the human excretion in the most advantageous form for 

 agricultural purposes. The same indifferent management 

 which characterizes quite frequently the treatment of the 



