432 Tbaxsactioxs of the American Institute. 



on Toung cabbages, it was found to be so powerful as to burn them. 

 " With six pouuds," says lie, " I set in a piece of unraanured ground 

 forty dozen Brocoli and Savoy plants, and no finer crop could have 

 been produced. In 18C0, a farm-bailiff received from me a hundred 

 weight of compost from my stock of three cart loads, which had 

 passed five times through a closet used by fifteen persons and after- 

 ward lain seven months in a shed. This the bailiff applied to a quarter 

 of an acre, drilling in swedes. To the remainder of the field of 

 four acres he applied an equal dressing of superphosphate. 

 The result was, the roots on the garden acre exceeded in 

 weight by one-third any specimens that coiild be found on the rest of 

 the field. The next year this land was sown to barley, without fur- 

 ther application of manure, and the same quarter acre yielded one- 

 fourth more than any other quarter acre in the inclosure. Further 

 experiments proved the compost to be full}' as valuable as crushed 

 bone." 



Of course, in instituting this reform, especially in large cities, it 

 will be necessary to encounter and overcome the powerful prejudice 

 which always rises up to combat radical changes. Nevertheless, for 

 the permanent welfare of all concerned, the opposition must be mas- 

 tered. It is announced tliat a well known writer, Mr. George E. 

 Waring, Jr., has pre])ared a pamplilet urging the importance of imme- 

 diate action, and giving full directions as to the making and using of 

 the " earth closet." 



Mr. 1\ . C. Meeker.-!-This is a well prepared paper. The invention 

 referred to is of English origin. Mr. "Waring's 'pamphlet should be 

 in the hands of every householder, that attention may be called to the 

 subject, even if nothing more results. So far as concerns abating tlie 

 noisome and unhealtJiy odors arising from the source referred to, 

 either in city or country, and perhaps more so in the country, 

 nothing to me seems more important than a consideration of 

 the subject. But as to applying the fertilizer for the growth of 

 A'cgetables or any kind of food, for family use, I do not feel like 

 recommending it, for I am adverse to using it, if anything 

 else can possibly be had ; and although its merits often have been 

 urged, farmers have been reluctant to adopt it. We are continually 

 reminded that the Chinese attach great value to this fertilizer, as 

 though we were under some obligation to adopt their method. Now we 

 have heard a great deal of progressed plant food, and of some not being 

 enough progressed, but it seems to me that this article is progressed too 



