290 Account of a Stercorary. 



neral result might be known. My object always is, to 

 invite others to develope their experience, as freely as 

 I communicate mine. 



In my enquiries on the subject of the z/ellow-wafe)' 

 in horses, I found discordant opinions, as to the nox- 

 ious qualities of 5?ci^/^ dung. Some persons, among 

 whom were some medical characters, did not conceive 

 it prejudicial, when the desolating epidemics raged in 

 our city. Others were of a directly contrary opinion. 

 In all cases wherein there are even doubts, and more 

 so, when opinions are divided ; and peremptory on both 

 sides ; I hold it most prudent to avoid risk. It is 

 certainly the safest, to place the stercorary in a situa- 

 tion not liable to operate on the air of the stables ; and 

 the health of the animals confined in them. 



I never found deep stercoraries eligible. The bot- 

 toms should admit of the sap of the dung (as the drain- 

 ings are called) running into pits, furnished with the 

 means of pumping up the drainings, especially after 

 irrigation ; and restoring to the heap what it had lost, 

 or otherways using them, at pleasure. No dung, be 

 the quantity what it may, in stercoraries above ground, 

 well ventilated, covered and watered, requires the ex- 

 pensive operation of throwing over ; if the materials 

 be properly arranged. If it be irrigated thoroughly, 

 two or three times in a season, artificially, by spouts, 

 to convey rain or other water, it will rot sufficiently 

 and promptly, by its own fermentation ; and never be- 

 come a caput mortuum, by the dry-rot. I have said 

 often, that dung more than one year old, becomes car- 

 bonated, in a greater or less degree. Its fermentation 



