1S69.] DOMESTIC AIDS TO GAKDEN CULTURE. 155 



must simply place it within their reach, and it is astonishing how soon they will 

 give a good account of it, and convert it into grass, beef, milk, bread, fruits, or 

 flowers at our pleasure. Talk about the changes effected by man ! what are they 

 compared to the transformations brought about by the combined energies of 

 plants, and the earth ? Look at that sewage that you are now wasting in that 

 dirty ditch. Stop it instantly ; store it up, and apply it to your soil. In the 

 spring it will expand into a snowdrop, or a crocus, or a primrose, or an auricula, 

 or a daisy. During the summer it will grow into a lily, condense into a violet, cup 

 into a rose, be changed into a bright-zoned pelargonium, run up into a hollyhock, 

 creep into a fiery blaze of verbena, twist into a convolvulus, or melt in one's 

 mouth as a luscious fruit. Or you may admire it in your pot plants as it droops 

 into a fuchsia, flames out into an azalea, is painted on your fine-foliage plants, 

 or curves gracefully into a fern leaf. 



Now is the time to elect what your sewag© is to become. Provided only you 

 get it into a living plant, it is not at all particular as to the medium employed ; 

 and I can add, from a lengthened experience of its use, that every garden plant, 

 with the exception of the heath, seems grateful for its assistance. 



The storage and preservation of sewage must, however, precede its applica- 

 tion. For this purpose, a perfectly water-tight vessel or tank must be provided. 

 It should also be as nearly as possible air-tight, to prevent the escape of the 

 gaseous constituents. In small cottages, an old oil barrel, sunk into the ground 

 and carefully covered, would answer very well. But for general use, nothing 

 answers so well as a carefully cemented brick and cement well or tank, of a 

 capacity of from 200 to 1,000 gallons, according to the size of the establish- 

 ment. The size of the tank would depend upon various considerations ; whether, 

 for instance, all dish-washings were sent to the tank, or utilized by pigs or other 

 animals, and what proportion of excrementitious matter was conveyed to it, or 

 otherwise disposed of. 



Presuming that it receives the whole waste of the family, the tank ought to 

 be large enough to contain a fortnight's or a month's sewage. If conveyed 

 from the house by pipes, these must be carefully tapped ; and when the 

 closets are connected with the sewage, a cesspool must intervene between them 

 and the sewage tank. The more solid refuse would thus be intercepted, and the 

 sewage be preserved in a state of sufficient fluidity to pass readily through a 

 pump. For every house beyond the merest cottage, a pump is the cleanliest 

 and, in the end, the cheapest contrivance for lifting sewage. And the best mode 

 for cottages would be for several to combine and raise their sewage by pump- 

 power. Or rather, the whole matter should devolve upon the landlords, who 

 should provide storage for sewage, and means of distributing it, as they now 

 make provision for a supply of pure water. 



While the sewage is in tank, means should be adopted to render it as 

 inoffensive as possible. One of the cheapest and best deodorizers is gypsum, or 



