HUMAN EXCREMENTS FROM RASTADT. 273 



these ash-constituents to a suitable field, the latter will 

 thereby be enabled to produce, in a number of years, 

 one pound of corn more than it woidd have done 

 without this additional supply of ash-constituents. The 

 daily ration of a soldier, in Baden, is 2 lbs. of bread ; 

 the excremeiits of the 8000 men of the chUerent garrisons 

 contain accordingly, per day, the ash-constituents and the 

 nitrogen of 16,000 lbs. of bread, which returned to the 

 soil will fully suffice to reproduce the same quantity 

 of corn as had been used, in form of flour, to bake 

 the 16,000 lbs. of bread. Reckoning H lb. of corn to 

 2 lbs. of bread, the excrements of the soldiers in the 

 Grand Duchy of Baden give, therefore, annually, the ash- 

 constituents required for the production of 43,760 cwts. 

 of corn. 



The peasants about Eastadt and the other garrison 

 towns, having found out at last by experience the power- 

 ful fertilising effect of these excrements upon their 

 fields, now pay for every full cask a certain sum (still 

 rising in price every year), which not only has long since 

 repaid the original outlay, besides covering the annual 

 cost of maintenance, repairs, &c., but actually leaves 

 a handsome profit to the department. 



The results brought about in these districts are highly 

 interesting. Sandy wastes, more particularly in the 

 vicinity of Eastadt and Carlsruhe, have been turned into 

 smihng corn-fields of great fertility. Assuming, for the 

 sake of illustration, that the peasants had to furnish the 

 whole of the corn produced by means of this manure, 

 to the military administrations of the several garrison 

 towns, there would tlius be established a perfect circula- 

 tion of these conchtions of life, wliich would provide 

 8000 men witli bread, year after year, without in the 

 least reducing tlie productiveness of the fields on which 



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