114 MANURES. 



Some have supposed that manuring with night 

 Boil would give disagreeable properties to plants : 

 tliis is not the case ; their quality is invariably im- 

 proved. The color and odor ot the rose are made 

 richer and more delicate b}' the use of the most of- 

 fensive night soil as manure. 



It is evident that tliis is the case from the fact 

 that plants liave it for their direct object to make 

 over and put togetiier the refuse organic matter and 

 the gases and the minerals found in nature, for tlie 

 use of animals. If there were no natural means of 

 rendering the excrement of animals available to 

 plants, the earth must soon be shorn of its fertility, 

 as the elements of growth when once consumed 

 would be essentially destroyed, and no soil could 

 survive the exhaustion. There is no reason why the 

 manure of man should be rejected by vegetation 

 more than that of any other animal ; and indeed it 

 is not, — ample experience has proved that there is 

 no better manure in existence. 



A single experiment will suffice to show that 

 night soil may be so kept that there shall be no loss 

 of its valuable gases, and consequently no oflensive 

 odor arising from it, while it may be removed and 

 applied to crops without unpleasantness. All that is 

 necessary to efiect this wonderful change in night 

 soil, and to turn it from its disagreeable character to 

 one entirely inoffensive, is to mix with it a little char- 

 coal dust, prepared muck, dry earth, or any other good 

 aljsorbent — thus making what is called poudrette. 

 The mode of doing this must depend on circumstances. 



