368 



FARMERS' REGISTER. 



[No. 3 



trembling; cold siezes him, he breathes with difH- 

 culty, and he is conducted io'lhe hospital to await 

 the coming of convulsions, violent colic, and other 

 pains, anil paralysis which oilen becomes pi-rma- 

 nent. Another workmen' succeeds the first; he 

 has a rope Ikstened aronnd his breast and beneath 

 , his arms, wliile the otiier end is held by one of his 

 comrades above, who /bllovvs him with his eye, 

 and is ready to draw him upi, il" he plunges into 

 the vanne, or liills extended upon -the more solid 

 mass, struck by asphyJcia, (liiiutiiig) il' not by 

 death. It was doubiiess, the exisience of fj'^ses 

 d^aisance among the Greeks, which has furiiislied 

 grounds for the fable of the mouths of Styx and 

 of Cocytus. 'I'he noted Grotto del Cane (of Italy,,) 

 does nothing but produce asphyxia — that is to de- 

 prive ofthe signs of lili», which are restored i<nm,edi- 

 ately by the subject being plunged in the water of 

 the neighboring lake, Agnano. But It, is not the 

 same with the asphyxia occasioned by the empty- 

 ing of/asses d^aisance. The sulpha retted hydrogen 

 gas is quite another thing to the carbonic acid gas. 



The numerous acciden's occasioned by the enip- 

 ty'mgol fusses d^aisance^vere among the first objects 

 which exercised my zeal in the career of jiublic 

 utility to which I have consecrated my labors. 

 Inconsequence, I enlisted the solicitude of gov- 

 ernment, and proposed to it to unite myself with 

 Laborie and M. Parmentier, for continuing the 

 researches which were alike inlerestinffto human- 

 ity, to science, and to agriculture. Chemistry had 

 analyzed the excremenlitions matters; it hlul com- 

 menced to analyze the gases; but it had not pen- 

 etrated into the interior of the fosses d'aisante, 

 the only laboratory ii; which to examine the phe- 

 nomena which the most putrescent substance pre- 

 sents. From these researches, it has respited, that 

 no workman who will take the precaulionvvhich 

 we have proposed in the use of quicklime, and of 

 fire, ought to perish, in cleaning owl fosses or 

 wells; or in the excavation of mephitic soiU, to 

 which! have applied, with no less, efficacy, these 

 cautionary means- against death and asphyxia. 



Soft stone (pierre tendre) should be used for 

 the construction oC fosses d'aisance; hard stone has 

 not sufficient resistance. The ijases the most 

 active, the most solvent, exhaling from the excre- 

 mentions matters which are- undergoing an nn- 

 interupted process of fermentation, lend to soften 

 the stone, which they pene.trate to' a great 'thick- 

 ness. I have seen walls of extreme solidity, of 

 which the surlace miirht be crumbled by the fin- 

 gers — not only the wall of the fosses, but those of 

 the body of the [upper] building formins the pri- 

 vies; whilst the soft stone permits the penetration 

 of the viscous fluid, which thus forms a coating 

 that prevents infiltration. 



The circular form is so much the more necssa- 

 ry, as I have seen [square] fosses of wliich the 

 cleaning caused no accidents to the moment when, 

 the centre being emptied, the corners were com- 

 menced upon. Nothing is more dangerous than 

 to meet with bunches of straw or haj^, which 

 have been thrown into the pit; it is rare that they 

 do not conceal a m<fet1e, or me|)hitic gas. In ge- 

 neral, all foreign substances add ni'.ch to the dan- 

 gers of emptying; it is thus that soap waters 

 [which have been used for washinn:,] may cause 

 a fosse to be fatal to the workmen engaged in 

 em|)tying it. 



I will observe that pits for fiirm-yard dung, 

 ought to be considered as true fosses d'aisance, in 

 regard to tlieif putrid fluid part, the mephitic gas 

 which they evolve, and consequentlvj ol the acci- 

 dents, which are of similar character, which at- 

 tend theempiyintr offossds of farm-yard dung; so 

 th^t the means iiuUcated as saleguurds in tlie 

 one case, suit,also for the other. 



No. iv; 



The '.waste and dcstrnclUm nf toifin-made stable 

 manure, and of other rich materials. 



The almost universal misraanarf:ement of the 

 manure made in 'tavern and livery stables, where 

 ^rnany hordes are usuajly kept, and the gross ignor- 

 cUice or total disregard of the principles, shown in 

 every particular, are still more strange, and less 

 excusa'lile, than any of the errors and neglects in 

 the matl©f tr.eated in the last two numbers. In re- 

 gard to that, it must be'confi^ssed that there is much 

 to excite [)re)udice and disgust — and therefore, 

 ther.e ate strong objections to economizing the value 

 ^md applying it to proper use. But in regard to 

 the manure furnished by domestic animals, no 

 such objections exi^t; and no owtier of a stable, or 

 cultivator of a fiirm, lias' any doubt, (even when 

 there ought to be doubt,) of the manure obtained 

 from hoi'ses. (more especially,) being rich, and be- 

 neficial in use. , Yet, notwilhstandiiiir this opinion, 

 the nearly pure animal manure of stablps, in Rich- 

 mond, (wliere all manures are more in demand for 

 reason oftheir being more market farms) sells, for 

 25 cents the cart- load (of 20 heaped bushels) — 

 and in Petersburg, at half" that price the sale has 

 been always slow, until very recently. Even at 

 th,ese low prices, the buyer sometimes complains 

 of paying too much — and with truth, inasmuch 

 as. the half of the bulk, arid nine-tenths ofthe 

 strength of the manure,, are destroyed- before the 

 small remainder. of value is applied to his field. 



The dung and urjne of corn-fed horses make a 

 manure so rich, and therefore so inclined to run 

 into violent and destructive fermentation, that it is 

 very difficult to avoid great loss of value from that 

 result, even in cool weather, and when there is 

 mixed with the animal matter ten times its quan- 

 .tity of vegetable matter, used for littering the stalls. 

 Few farmer.s, of even the careful and judicious, 

 who put stable rrtanure in heaps, escape some loss 

 from destructive, co??S!/?m»g fermentation, which 

 produces the "^re fans:ingC'' whose presence is so 

 plainl}^ marked by xohite moiddlaess. When the 

 fermentation is very violent, from too little mois- 

 ture, and this fire-fang is dry, and found through- 

 out the whole mass^ f hen nearly all the rich parts 

 of the bulk have been already decomposed and 

 driven off in jjases — and "the mouldy and scorched 

 bulk left, though still deemed rich, because it is 

 stable manure, is perhaps dear at the usual misera- 

 ble price of about half a cent the bushel. 



Straw, the usual nwterial for litter, or any other 

 kind of litter for stables, is a costly article of pur- 

 chase in towns; and under the present bad system, 

 this dearness must continue, as even the carriage, 

 fi-om the places of supply in the country, must 

 make the '-article costly. The owners of public 

 stables cannot afford to pay the prices for Utter 

 which the present scanty demand would make no- 



