226 HANDY-BOOK OF HUSBANDRY. 



summer, it will be well to use a drying apparatus, made with a 

 plate of l^-inch boiler iron, — condemned for other use, — set on brick 

 walls high enough to allow a small stove to be placed under it, the 

 pipe or flue running from the stove, which is in the front of the 

 space, to an opening at the rear. The earth is spread upon the 

 plate a few inches deep, and is very rapidly made ready for use. 



RE-DRYING. 



In the country, where earth is plenty and where there is use 

 on the farm or in the garden for the manure, it will be best to 

 compost the accumulation of the closet until required for use, 

 and to supply the closet with fresh earth ; not because it is more 

 effective than that which has been several times used, but because 

 it is better to have the manure as bulky as possible for ease of even 

 distribution. But in towns, and in all cases in which the manure 

 has to be transported to a distance, making it desirable that it be as 

 concentrated as possible, the same earth should be used over and 

 over again. It has been demonstrated that the same earth may be 

 used six or seven times over, until it becomes equal to Peruvian 

 guano in richness, without losing its efficiency as a deodorizer. 



Earth owes its deodorizing power to both its clay and its 

 decomposed organic matter, and — as in the case of the soil of an 

 old garden which has been heavily manured for many years — 

 the manure itself, when thoroughly decomposed, only adds to the 

 disinfecting strength of the earth, by adding to its humus. In 

 fact, instances are cited in which the same earth has passed ten 

 times through the closet, receiving at each use an addition to its 

 manurial value. Of course in time the limit will be passed and 

 the preponderance of organic matter will tell on the effect, so 

 that it is found in most cases that more than six or seven uses 

 are enough to reduce the deodorizing effect. 



When the earth is removed from the closet or the commode, 

 it should be emptied into a barrel, a cask, or a bin, in a sheltered 

 but well-ventilated place. Here it will soon so far decompose 

 that all traces of paper and solid faeces will disappear, and it will 



