214: HANDY-BOOK OF HUSBANDRY. 



** general adoption. However, the scheme is about to be thor- 

 *' oughly tested, and it is to be hoped that its success will be such 

 " as to secure a return to the soil of a vast amount of valuable 

 *' matter, which, hitherto, has been worse than thrown away. 



" The many attempts that have been made to extract the fer- 

 *■*" tilizing parts of the sewage from the deluge of water with 

 " which they are diluted, have entirely failed of their object. If, 

 ** as now seems probable, the best and cheapest way to remove 

 *' waste matters from large towns is by dilution in large quantities 

 *' of water, the efforts of agriculturists must be directed to the 

 *' best means of making use of the mixture." 



******* 



" So much for the night-soil of large cities. The health of the 

 " community demands that it be removed, and the prosperity of 

 " the country demands that it be not wasted. To fulfill these two 

 *' requirements should be the aim of sanitarians and political 

 ** economists. 



" But a comparatively small part of the population of the 

 *' United States live in large cities, — a far larger number live in 

 "small towns and in the country. For their uses the regularly 

 *' organized systems of sewerage are not available. Yet they 

 *' greatly need some radical improvement in their privy accommo- 

 *■*■ dations. Except in those comparatively rare cases in which 

 *■*■ water-works are introduced into houses, the arrangements for 

 *' this purpose are almost always offensive and wasteful ; and not 

 *' unfrequently detrimental to health, and indecent in their character 

 *'and tendency. 



" The problem of improvement is an exceecTmgly difBcult one. 

 ** While, by an enlightened control, the inhabitants of cities can 

 ** be compelled to conform to certain requirements, those who 

 " live in villages and on farms are subject only to a much more 

 **lax discipline, which stops far short of the minuteness of the 

 ** Mosaic law regulating personal habits. If they adopt improve- 

 *' ments, — especially of the sort under consideration, — it will be 

 " because they find it for their own pecuniary interest, or very 

 *' decidedly for their convenience to do so. No question of 



