162 



FARMERS' REGISTER 



[No. 3 



ed their purity. But the greatest objection to this 

 plan, is the utter destruction ol" so enormous an 

 amount of rich manure, v/hich it^ properly pre- 

 served and applied, would soon mak-e rich and 

 fruitiul the poorest surrounding country. And to 

 properly accumulate and preserve ail this manure, 

 arid prevent its being offensive to the senses, or 

 injurious to health, might in most bases, (and cer- 

 tainly on all the eastern coast of the southern 

 states,) be effected not onlj^ at lees cost than by 

 a proper system of sewers, but at less than the 

 present wasteful and expensive system of eniploy- 

 ing laborers, under direction of the town police, and 

 boards of health, so to stir up and move about the 

 excrement, as to produce its most speedy'deoompo- 

 sition, and total passing off into the air, and thereby 

 to give the full benefit of its evolving effluvia to the 

 nostrils of the towns-people. 



The remedy is that which has been proposed in. 

 general terms in the preceding part of these obser- 

 vatiotis; to provide calcareous ear/A (either marl, or 

 whatever other form may be cheapest,) enough to 

 cover every spot in the "town, in which decompo- 

 sable filth can accumulate; and this to be renewed 

 from time to time, as needed.^ The calcareous 

 matter would form a chemical compound with 

 the putrescent, so as to preserve the latter li-om 

 all waste, and li-om giving out any offensive odor; 

 and once a year, (when in situations not conve- 

 nient at all times,) and in cold weather, the accu- 

 mulations might be removed to the country to be 

 used as manure; and the richest as well as the 

 most permanent manure in the world, this com- 

 pound of animal and calcareous matter would be. 

 The object would be to acaumulate, as nmch as 

 possible, instead oCdispersing, the most putrescent 

 matters. And lor this purpose, as well as to, afford 

 the general accommodations now so much required 

 for comfort and lor decency, and also tor health, 

 there should be large and well constructed privies 

 erected in suitable situations, and at convenient 

 distances apart, throughout the town, free i'6r the 

 use of all males without exception. The pits 

 should be large and sufficiently deep, but accessi- 

 ble to carts, to bring marl, and to remove the con- 

 tents. At the expense of the town (as the whole 

 system ought to be,) there should always be kept 

 a heap of rich marl near to each pit, and a sprink- 

 ling, once or twice a day over the excrement, would 

 effectually secure it from Avastinfr, or beino- offen- 

 sive. By such places of accommodation being iur- 

 xiished, and kept in the neatest condition by reiju- 

 lar attendants, there might be, and would be aba- 

 ted many of the small private receptacles, which ne- 

 cessarily (as now managed) are more or less filthy 

 nuisances. And the buckets which now are at niijht 

 emptied on all vacant and forbidden spots, (and' 

 requiring the unceasing activity of the Police and 

 Board of Health to attempt to prevent.) would be 

 then emptied into these pits, with certainty, simply 

 because they would offer the nearest and most con- 

 venient places of deposite. There would then be 

 no inducement remaining for the defilinor of every 

 spot of vacant ground; and such places,"instead of 

 being abominations to the senses and the minds of 

 all decent observers — and absolutely forbidden fo 

 the footsteps, and even to the distant view of mod- 

 est women — would be clean and lovely fjrass plots, 

 serving to refresh and relieve the eyes tired of see- 

 ing brick wails and stone pavemei'^ts. I will touch 

 but gently on the moral nuisance that exists in so 



many cases in every town, where these vacant 

 spots, the only public places "of ease," are over- 

 looked by the back windows of the houses oj" re- 

 spectable families, the members of which, though 

 at considerable distances, are nevertheless una- 

 voidably subjected to witness indecent exposures, 

 still" more offensive to the mind than to the eye. 



In addition to the public and general accommo- 

 dations proposed, there should be a certain and suf- 

 ficient quantity of marl -carried at certain intervals 

 of time, to every private lot, (unless the occupant 

 took measures to provide himself with it.) to be 

 used as wanted, ibr similar purposes. This would 

 prevent, what is almcs't impossible now to avoid, 

 there being offensive accumulations, or still more 

 offensive removals .and dispersions, of foscal mat- 

 ter OH private lots. 



It would be imj^ossible to approach the truth in 

 estimating what would be the expense of such a 

 system in ain^ particular town, until it shall have 

 been tried. But there can be no doubt but that 

 the benefits would far overbalance the cost. 

 Many expenses and evils, piuch worse to bear, 

 and now continually encountered, would be, by 

 these means, avoided. Such of these as bear on 

 private individuals, I pass over without ilotice. 

 For one item, the public would save all that part 

 of the labors of their police, Xvhich is now most 

 unprofitably devoted to this object. ' 



But even if it is admitted that the means pro- 

 posed would be as elfectual as I imagine^ in pre- 

 serving cleanliiiess, and cutting off sources of dis- 

 ease — and that the compoilnd formed is of all 

 the supposed value, as. manure, still it irjay be ob- 

 je'cted that it would be long before prejudice and 

 incredulity will be so removed as to make this 

 manure an article of sale — and consequently, that 

 all expectations (if returns fi-om sales. must be vi- 

 sionary. Even if there should be no sales for two 

 or three years, and if the riianure should be merely 

 taken for the trouble of carrying it away, the ex- 

 pense would be well afforded as a mere matter of 

 police. But two years' use would make manifest 

 the value of this compound manure, and the de- 

 mand and the price would afterwards gradually 

 increase, until it would nearly or quite defray the 

 whole expense of the plan. 



But the town of Petersburg has at once the best 

 possible customer for all that the plan would sup- 

 ply for some years, in the farm of the Poor-House, 

 belonginir to. and. cultivated at the expense of the 

 town. To this land, now, much putrescent ma- 

 nure is carried, removed by the Police from the 

 town. But except in winter, or at the rare and 

 short other periods when manure can be (or is) at 

 once advantageously laid on the field, these sup- 

 plies, are heaped up for future use, and of course, 

 rot away as rapidly as possible, and give ten times 

 as much 6f their products to the air as to the soil. 

 'Besides — even if there was not necessarily this 

 great waste fi-om the decomposition of manure al- 

 together putrescent, when moved and heaped in 

 warm weather, there would ■ be very little profit 

 from its application. The lands lying over the 

 belt of granite which passes through Viririnia, 

 and which forms the falls of the rivers flowing to 

 the Atlantic, are. naturally, among the most des- 

 titute of lime, and consequently are among the 

 poorest and the least capable of retaining putres- 

 cent manures when applied to them. Such are 

 the lands surroundinij and within a few miles of 



