UTILIZATION OF SEWAGE. 29 



1877 on tlie " ^Management of Night Soil," and quoted from 

 the highest authority to establish the great value of human 

 excremeut as a fertilizer. The analyses of Berzelius, Leh- 

 mann and many others, agree in showing its richness in 

 plant-food. 



" The eminent agricultural chemist, Liebig, quoting Bous- 

 singault, speaiving of value of night soil as compared with 

 other manures, says, on the assumption that the liquid and 

 solid excrements of man amount, on an average, to only a 

 pound and a half daily (a pound and a quarter of urine and 

 one-quarter pound of faeces), and that both taken together 

 contain three per cent, of nitrogen, then in one year they 

 will amount to five hundred and forty-seven pounds, contain- 

 ing 16.41 pounds of nitrogen — a quantity sufficient to yield 

 the nitrogen of eight hundred pounds of Avheat, rye, oats, 



or nine hundred pounds of barley One hundred 



parts of the urine of a healthy man are equal to thirteen 



hundred of the fresh dung of a horse The activity 



of night soil as a manure is one of its chief advantages ; 

 and this, in a great measure, is due to the very large pro- 

 portion of azotized principles it possesses. It is from this 

 azot, ammonia is derived, and it is ascertained that a man 

 passes nearly half an ounce of azot with his urine every 

 twenty-four hours." 



Gentlemen, I assume it is not necessary for me to quote 

 further facts showing value from an analytic point of view. 

 The rich nitrogenous food upon which the human race sub- 

 sists, must, of necessity, produce a valuable fertilizer. The 

 discussion which follows the paper referred to, indicates 

 that, in practice, no such qualities are found by many of 

 the farmers ; that they considered it a poor fertilizer, and 

 some would not take it as a gift. I am informed there 

 are but few farmers in the vicinity of Boston who will allow 

 it on their forms. Thus there appears the proverbial differ- 

 ence between theory and practice. But it is a difference 

 which consideration will reconcile. Because farmers find 

 no value in it is not proof that it never contained any. 

 Six-sevenths of the fertilizing matter thrown into a vault or 

 cesspool is soluble. If the walls are j)ervious, as is the 

 case with many, not one particle of this can be arrested by 



