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THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



farmers ; and when the Railway Companies can be induced 

 to aid them by lower rates, the Corporation, I doubt not, 

 will do the work for much less than at present. 

 "I am, dear sir, yours faithfully, 



" John Walworth, Superintendent, 

 " G. Rochford Clarke, Esq., 



Spring Garden-terrace, London." 



He (Mr. Clarke j would now tell them the result of his 

 investigations in France and Belgium, where he spent his 

 last vacation for the purpose of ascertaining what they were 

 doing in this matter. He was introduced to the firm of 

 Messrs. Reitchie and Co., of Paris, who cleansed an im- 

 mense number of privies belonging to private houses and 

 public establishments, He went to their establishment at 

 Bondy, where he saw a great manj acres of land, from GO 

 to 80 acres, divided into compartments, where the soil was 

 taken out to the depth of eight, ten, twelve, and fourteen 

 feet, and into those recepiacles the liquid manure ran from 

 Paris, by means of a sewer; it remained there until it made 

 a deposit ; the liquid was then let out to another tank until 

 it was exhausted. Ultimately there was a great accumula- 

 tion of deposit till it was dry enough to be removed. He 

 saw immense tanks of it, and it was subsequently packed 

 for Paris ; there was nothmg unpleasant or offensive about 

 it, and it smelt to him like sal volatile or ammonia. He 

 went into their cellars at Paris and found three modes of 

 collecting nightsoil; one was of a simple nature, namel}', a 

 tub or barrel in communication with the closet above, and 

 when the tub was full another was substituted. The next 

 was what was called the divided system, namely, of zinc or 

 galvanized iron, with a strainer on the side and at the top, 

 and the liquid ran out by a pipe on the side into another 

 tub. The tub with the liquid was obliged to be removed 

 four times oftener than the other containing the solid 

 matter. The third system consisted of a similar cask for 

 dividing, but instead of the pipes being connected with 

 another barrel, they were with a tank ; it was then pumped 

 into pipes or a sewer, and was thus carried to Bondy. He 

 (Mr. Clarke) stood by and observed all these processes, and 

 never detected the slightest smell. He (Mr. Clarke) had 

 visited a cellar which was a baker's shop, and found him- 

 self among the sacks of flour and loaves, and in the same 

 cellar he saw the nightsoil-eollecting tubs, and perfectly 

 free from any unpleasantness. He (Mr. Clarke) next visited 

 the public institutions and prisons. He went to the Mili- 

 tary Fort at Vincennes, where an intelligent officer, an en- 

 gineer, showed him that everything went into a tank 

 covered with a flat stone in the garden; the contents 

 were pumped into carts constructed for the puqwse, and 

 carried away to a fann two or three miles off; and it 

 was a remarkable fact, that it all went to the Emperor's 

 farm. He (Mr. Clarke) went to the Emperor's farm and 

 saw his agent, but he was too busy to attend to liim, 

 as some French grandees arrived there about the same 

 time, so he could not speak as to the results of this 

 manure there. He had visited, under the authority of 

 the Prefect of the Seine and the Minister of the Interior, 

 various other places— in fact, he had visited places northj 

 south, east, and west, extending from the British Channel 

 to the Mediterranean, and from the Pyrenees to the Alps, 

 and found every person using this nightsoil manure, which 

 they carried away to their farms, and applied to the land. 

 He understood that at the institiition for juvenile offenders 

 at Tours, vhere they were put to agricultural labour, they 

 collected and used their nightsoil; but the weather pre- 

 vented his going there. With regard to Belgium, he could 

 not get to Brussels, as he intended, owing to his having 



received intelligence of the illness of a relative, which dis- 

 arranged his plans, Mr. Dolman, of London, however, told 

 him that gi'eat use was made of it in Belgium, where they 

 kept the liquid in tanks, into which they threw clean straw, 

 A man got into the tank barelegged, and trampled down 

 the strew until it was quite saturated : it was then put on 

 sticks, and placed in carts, carried to the farm, and laid 

 along the furrows. What was the effect or value of it, he 

 was not informed; but it showed the great importance 

 which they attached to these materials ; and they were not 

 likely to go to such trouble or expense, if the results were 

 not satisfactory. He had seen enough in France to satisfy 

 him that the farmers in this kingdom would do well to 

 appoint some good practical man to investigate these things, 

 and report the result. As to the mode of collecting night- 

 soil they were lamentably deficient, and had made no im- 

 provement whatever on| the old privy and cesspool. It was 

 not surprising, then, with such disadvantages, that, when 

 an ingenious contrivance like the water-closet was intro- 

 duced, both stood no chance, until they began to discover 

 the folly of carrying away into the river this rich manure, 

 and losing the whole of it, Mr, Clarke then said that he 

 had been informed by Mr. Brown, of Cirencester, that he 

 had tried to improve the old privies by taking a flat stone a 

 little above the ground, and putting over it a close box, with 

 a door at the side or back, with a tray, into which he put 

 earth or ashes. He (Mr. Clarke) thought the receptacle 

 should be above the ground, so that it could be emptied 

 easily ; and that it would be advisable to go up steps to it, 

 and have waggons under, very low ; and when full, they 

 might be taken to the farm with the ashes of the house. 

 The first point for consideration was, how they could make 

 use of this manure ; and next, as to the best ingredients for 

 mixing with it. Many processes had been patented for 

 deodorizing the manure ; but the result was, that it destroyed 

 its properties on this point. The Rev. H, Moule, Vicar of 

 Fordington, Dorset, had supplied him with the following 

 information : 



He had everything which previously went into a cesspool 

 received and removed in buckets. "At first," he writes, 

 " the contents of these buckets were buried in trenches 

 about a foot deep in my garden ; but on discovering that 

 after three or four weeks not a trace of tliis matter could be 

 discovered, I had a shed erected, the earth beneath it sifted, 

 and with a portion of this the contents of the buckets every 

 morning mixed, as a man would roughly mix mortar. The 

 whole operation of removing and mixing does not occupy a 

 boy more than a quarter of an hour. And wilhin len minutes 

 after its completion, neither the eye nor nose can perceive any- 

 thing offensive. When all the earth, which did not exceed 

 three cartloads, had been thus employed, that which had 

 been first used was sufficiently dried to be used for the same 

 purpose again, and it absorbed and deodorised as readily as 

 at the first; A portion of it is now being used for the fifth 

 time for the same purpose ; and thus all that offensive 

 matter, which otherwise would have been wasted in the 

 vault, a nuisance to my house and the neighbours, and a 

 source, it may be, of sickness and disease, is now a mass of 

 valuable manure, perfectly inoffensive both to the eye and 

 the nose. I have taken fifty or sixty persons to see it, with" 

 out previously acquainting them with its nature, and not 

 one has guessed it. I have the same day submitted some 

 to strong fire-heat, and that which unmixed with earth 

 would under such heat have been intolerable, in this mixed 

 state emitted no offensive smell whatever. 

 " This advantage of earth over water for snch a purpose 



