1870.] secretary's report. 33 



In his Annual Report for 18(57, the Secretary made use of the following 

 language : 



" The members of the Society who reside in the City of Worcester, are to be felici- 

 tated upon the inexhaustibility of the Municipal resources. So rich is the soil that it 

 rejects manure. In this ' heart of the Commonwealth,' we behold no weary or over- 

 burdened traveller tempted by the Japanese invitation to pause by the wayside 

 for relief! On the contrary, society is so cold — its formalities so polished — its exi- 

 gences so rigidly observed — that the very demands of nature would be subjected to 

 State ' search,' or Federal ' license,' unless endorsed by the original gardener. Hence 

 it happens that all Blth is so readily discerned. For this reason it is that the least speck 

 of dirt is at once avoided as an obstacle by our heavily imposed and evilly disposed 

 guardians of the peace. Therefore, and for that reason solely is it, that the sewerage of 

 one half of the municipality is to be concentrated into a single channel, and thenceforth 

 ejected to fertilize the valley of the Upper Blackstone. The tax-payers can perhaps 

 determine, by reference to their assessments, the actual cost to them in money, of this 

 system of terrene devastation. But the Agriculturist to a partial extent, and the Hor- 

 ticulturist in every branch of his profession, can but realize in all stages of their prac- 

 tice, the reckless and wasteful deprivation to which they are subjected. The ajsthetio 

 man is well enough in his way : but the pomologist is aesthetic naturally and by ac- 

 quirement : and he confesses to an honest need of plant-food, by whatever euphuism it 

 may be characterized. May it not be found that, with the ordure of Worcester will 

 disappear its verdure ? How long can a bank endure the simultaneous withdrawal of 

 its capital and discharge of its liabilities ? Can you burn a candle at both ends to 

 advantage ? " 



Since that report was penned, the undertaking therein referred to has been 

 steadily pushed forward to its conclusion. The earth has been robbed of its 

 moisture without the compensation consequent upon that alleviation of the 

 soil inevitable upon a judicious system of under-drainage. The writer is prob- 

 ably alone in his objection to the theory of subterranean sewers, upon sanitary 

 considerations. As large laboratories for the decomposition of human excreta, 

 or as capacious storehouses for the retention and ultimate dissemination of 

 noxious gases, their poteutial agency must be conceded. Nevertheless he be- 

 lieves in purification by rain, in disinfection by the direct rays of the sun. To 

 the advocates of the popular system and practice he would recommend a hearty 

 snuff at that concentrated fragrance, effluent from those manifold and horrent 

 vents to the civic fundament, whose " offense is rank and smells to heaven,'' 

 even amidst the frosts and snows of winter. But it is to the reckless, and 

 therefore wicked, waste of fertilizing material that the attention of all cultiva- 

 tors of the soil should be particularly directed. As a single element in the 

 cjmputation of this loss, so possible to avoid, and for that reason the more 

 inexcusable, consider the fact that a barrel of flour is estimated in the annual 

 subsistence of each and every 'udividual in the community. All then that 

 enters into the formation of two hundred thousand (200,000) bushels of wheat 

 saving the two (2) per cent, that remains in the human body, the sole and ex- 

 hausting product of twenty thousand (20,000) acres, is yearly extracted from 



