330 



which these matters are sometimes managed deserves no light 

 censure. I knew a case in which, in the opinion of his physi- 

 cians, the life of a respectable individual was a sacrifice to one 

 of these negligently managed deposits made by a neighbor in 

 his immediate vicinity. I do not know why, in a civilized 

 community, the public have not an equal right to claim that the 

 air shall not be needlessly corrupted, any more than the wells 

 in a neighborhood poisoned, whether it be by the effluvia of 

 some odious manure-heap or the scarcely less disgusting odors 

 of tobacco. These places of deposit, as matter of public de- 

 cency, ought never, under any pretence, to be permitted by the 

 highway. By careful management of them in some suitable 

 place on the farm, remote from the road and the dwelling, this 

 great nuisance might be abated. 



I am aware upon what a homely subject I have fallen ; but 

 I know how essentially it concerns the farmer's interest and 

 the public health. " Evil be to him who evil thinks." I 

 would advise a fastidious reader to pass over this whole chapter, 

 but that 1 fear if I did, as it happens with forbidden passages 

 in the classics in college, he would think that he owed it to 

 himself to determine on the propriety of such advice, by first 

 reading with increased attention what the chapter contained. 



Every advance in cleanliness is an advance in civilization, a 

 contribution to health and an equal help to good morals. The 

 unfortunate beings who live in cities, are doomed to inhale 

 and exhale the innumerable odors, which are there comming- 

 led from cellars occasionally filled with bilge-water, mud- 

 docks which the receding tide has left bare, common sewers, 

 and broken gas-pipes. In the country there is no apology for 

 allowing any thing offensive on the premises. The farmers 

 who obtain the night-soil from cities, would find an advantage 

 in digging a long and deep vault, at least four feet in depth, 

 walled up with stone and plastered and floored so as to be 

 made thoroughly tight, and having a close and moveable cov- 

 ering. Into this the contents of the carts should be carefully 

 turned, with such a constant supply of soil or muck orashes 



