282 Remarks o?i the Plan of a Stercorary. 



it may be formed of good sound loam or clay. To rise 

 two feet at the centre, or crown ; dripping each way 

 to the gutters. This avoids the evil attendant on muck 

 lying in hollows, in which the over-abundant moisture 

 obstructs putrefaction. It is more simple than the 

 plan of an English stercorary, with a concave bed and 

 multiplied drains, always liable to choak.* B. B. B. 

 gutters; two feet wide, paved Avith flat stone, or pitched 

 with small pebbles; to decline or drip six inches, i. e. 

 two inches in ten feet, gradually from the back part, to 

 the cistern. These gutters must not be paved so as to 

 make the angles at the walls too acute. Faggots should 

 be placed next the walls in the gutters, to keep open 

 a passage, or hollow drain. The cistern or well need 

 not be deep ; but must be clayed at the bottom and 

 sides, to prevent leakages. The pump may be cheap 

 and simple ; made like a ship pump, with a wooden 

 brake. A wooden spear might answer the purpose ; 

 and not be liable, like iron, to corrode, and be injured 

 by the salts, or tartar, in the drainings. 



None but those who have had the means of ascer- 

 taining it by a reservoir, can tell the loss accruing by the 

 escape of the drainings. Above 70 hogsheads of drain- 

 ings have been returned on the dung heap of a moderate- 

 ly sized farm, in one season. Each hogshead of rich 

 drainings is at least equal, in efficiency, to a load of dung, 

 as a top dressing. Here is a gain of manure, for four or 

 five acres of ground. The loss by evaporation, caused 

 by the sun, for want of a roof or cover, is incalculable. 



* All the drafts of English stercoraries I have seen, are circular ; a figure, 

 whichi think inconvenient and expensive, precluding additions. 



