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Agriculture is the most Healthy and Honorable, as it is the most Natural and Useful pursuit of Man. nj 



VOL. XI. 



ROCHESTER, N. Y. — JUNE, 1850. 



NO. 6. 



PREPARATION OF NIG-HTSOII.. 



We have received several private letters asking in- 

 formation as to the best way of preparing- and using 

 nightsoil, which we propose to answer through the 

 pages of the Farmer. 



Some experience and considerable research have 

 convinced us of the necessity of restoring to all 

 depastured, mown, and tilled lands, a part of all the 

 plants removed in grass, hay, grain, or roots, cither 

 by man or his domestic animals. Every farmer 

 should adopt a system of husbandry which will so 

 improve his cultivated fields, that thirty bushels of 

 wheat and sixty of corn will be a common harvest. 

 To do this, those elements in the seeds of grain, 

 roots, and grass, which form meat, and the richest 

 manure, such as is found in the vaults of privies, 

 must be saved and applied to the growing crops in 

 the most .skillful and economical manner. 



There are two points to be attained in preparing 

 nightsoil. First, to remove all odor or offen.sive 

 smell from the fertilizer. Second, to get rid of the 

 75 per cent, of water in the semi-fluid mass. These 

 purposes eflecled, and there remains a very concen- 

 trated and exceedingly valuable food for all cultiva- 

 ted plants, which may be drilled in with seed wheat, 

 or sown broad-cast over growing crops. Every privy 

 should have a water-tight box in the vault, so arranged 

 that it can readily be drawn out at the back side or 

 one end of the building, and emptied of its contents. 

 Gypsum and common salt are the most economical 

 deodorizing agents that can be used. A very mod- 

 erate quantity of either will answer, although a little 

 of both salts, that is, sulphate of lime (gypsum) and 

 chloride of sodium, (common salt,) is better than to 

 use but one. No more should be used than is re- 

 quired to fix all volatile elements, especially in cities 

 ■ and villages where the fertilizer has to be carried 

 some distance. For this purpose, it is believed that 

 15 per cent, of gypsum or 10 of common salt will 

 suffice, estimating the whole at its dry weight. — 

 That is to say, 1000 lbs. of dry poudrette should 

 contain ISO of gypsum, or 100 of salt. Where the 

 last named articles are clieap, it might be better to 

 have 250 lbs. of plaster of Paris and salt to 750 of 

 dry excretions. The more of the salts contained in 

 urine the fertilizer possesses, the larger the amount 

 of gypsum or common salt one should use to fix the 

 ammonia. Plaster of Paris will form sulphate of 

 ammonia, the sulphuric acid (oil of vitriol) leaving 

 the lime in the plaster to unite chemically with the 



volatile alkali called ammonia. In a similar man- 

 ner, the chlorine in common salt (chloride of sodium) 

 will leave the sodium to combine chemically with 

 ammonia, and form sal. ammoniac, (ciiloride of am- 

 monium.) 



After gypsum and salt have been applied to the 

 mass of stercoraceous matter, it should be well dried 

 in the sun, precisely as common salt is made by solar 

 evaporation. In large establishments in cities, the 

 fecal matter, after it is dried, should be ground in a 

 bark mill, to form a fine powder wliich could readily 

 be drilled like the finest guano or ground hen dung. 



One hundred pounds of dry food, consisting of 

 bread, meat, potatoes, and vegetables, will form about 

 forty of solid excretions. To this, ten pounds of salt 

 and gypsum may be added, when the fertilizer on fair 

 lani] will re-produce 150 lbs. of bread, meat, and 

 potatoes again. On ]X)or land, which is leachy, not 

 over 50 or 75 pounds can reasonably be expected from 

 the poudrette, or nightsoil. 



We have so often stated the well ascertained fact, 

 that some 60 per cent, of the solid matter in the food 

 consumed by all the higher orders of animals, escapes 

 from the body through the lungs in the process of 

 breathing, that it appears unnecessary to explain 

 again this natural phenomenon. In a barrel of flour 

 sent to market, there are 186 pounds of carbon 

 (charcoal) and the elements of water. When this 

 flour is eaten in bread, about 117 lbs. escape as vapor 

 and carbonic acid from the organs of respiration into 

 the atmosphere, and 79 lbs. appear as feces and salts 

 in urine. Of these 79 lbs., 70 are still nothing but 

 carbon (coal) and the organized elements of water, 

 (oxygen and hydrogen.) The other 9 lbs. are azote 

 (base of ammonia) and incombustible salts, or earths. 

 By retaining all of these elements, including nitrogen, 

 or azote, in conjunction with 30 lbs. of organized 

 carbon, oxygen, and hydrogen, it is confidently be- 

 lieved that 39 or 40 lbs. of the most precious atoms 

 in a barrel of flour, drilled in with the seed, will pro- 

 duce, with fair tillage and fair seasons, wheat enough 

 to make another barrel of flour. In this estimate, it 

 is assumed that the farmer will make a good use of 

 the bran, chafl^, and straw, as well as the fertilizers 

 derived from flour. By not loosing any straw nor 

 bran, and regaining 20 per cent, of the hat ingredi- 

 ents in tlie flour, good crops of wheat can be grown 

 at much less expense than is now generally incurred. 



Where nightsoil is not to be hauled but a short 

 distance, dry muck and pulverized charcoal may be 

 used to advantage as an absorbent. Copperas (sul- 



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