328 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



by a stone culvert passing out of one corner to a low spot 

 outside, affording a convenient sally-port for rats and cats, 

 muskrats and polecats. 



In this cellar, the root-crops, apples, cider, and household 

 supplies were stored in the autumn, each giving off its own 

 peculiar odor, increasing in pungency with advancing decom- 

 position as spring approached. 



In the centre was built the huge chimney, large enough to 

 afford a fireplace of ample dimensions in the rooms above. 

 The only means of ventilation was by opening the cellar- 

 door, and, upward through floors and partitions to the open 

 air, through fireplaces and chimney. 



A pipe conveyed the dirty sink-water just outside the 

 walls of the house, to be absorbed by the earth, or diffused 

 over its surface. Near by was the well, ten, twenty, or 

 thirty feet deep, fed by draining water from the adjacent 

 earth. 



Not far from house and well, an independent building of 

 small dimensions, plain in architectural design, was erected, 

 or else a peculiarly ornamental annex was built out froin the 

 wood-house, for a privy. 



The deposits, being received into a shallow pit, were al- 

 lowed to spread over the surface of the ground, diluted with 

 every rain ; or perhaps once a year the putrefying mass was 

 carted off for fertilizing-purposes. Near by was placed the 

 pig-pen, the yard of which was another pit (perhaps one or 

 two feet deep) filled with semi-fluid filth emitting odors most 

 disagreeable and indescribable. 



The barn was often built on higher ground than the house. 

 The cattle-j^ard, or barn-yard, received the chief solid and 

 liquid excrements of the cattle. Its surface was concave, so 

 that after a rain its lowest or deepest part was a filthy, dirty 

 pool, foul smelling, covered, under solar influence, with green 

 slime. Sometimes the water was conveyed by a shallow 

 ditch to the surface of an adjoining field, to infiltrate the 

 soil in all directions with its filth. Such insanitary condi- 

 tions may be found too frequently in every town and village. 

 Therefore, if what has been said is correct, concerning the 

 purity of the air about and under our dwellings, and the 

 purity of the ground-water when used for drinking-purposes, 

 such accumulation of filthy materials in the soil must con- 



