PROCEEDINGS OF THE FARMERS' CLUB. 341 



nitrogen to the excrementitiuus matter of a given population, these ends 

 may be readily accomplished. The filmier may be supplied by the proper 

 disintegration of the soil, and the latter by using rain water which contains 

 ammonia. If tlie soil should not contain silica, it may be economically 

 added by macerating straw in the tank, or adding a soluble silicate directly. 

 The question of the comparativ^e agricultural value of night soil having 

 been submitted to the consideration of tlie late Professor Hembstadt of 

 Berlin, by the Prussian authorities, who wore desirous to apply the contents 

 of the city drains and cesspools to the recovery of barren and sandy lands 

 in the environs of Berlin and Dresden, that eminent agriculturist under- 

 took, in conjunction with other learned men, and with practical farmers, a 

 series of experiments, which were carried on for a great length of time, 

 and were varied in every possible way, in order to avoid all sources of fal- 

 lacy. The results of those investigations Hembstadt afterwards published, 

 and they led to extensive agricultural operations, all of which proved suc- 

 cessful. 



By far the most important point of practical knowledge in this matter, 

 put forward by the same great authorities, and the truth of which was 

 afterwards confirmed by many great farmers in East P'landers, is, that the 

 manuring with liquefied human soil has produced fourteen times the quan- 

 tity sown, where horse dung has only yielded ten. Accepting these con- 

 clusions as the result of actual experiment, they place an equal quantity of 

 fertilizing matter in the form of town sewage above all other manures, 

 considered with reference to its producing capability alone, irrespective of 

 the greater pecuniary economy of its application. It has been invariably 

 found that the miscellaneous nature of town manures, instead of being 

 unfavorable, is favorable to vegetable production. In the instances of irri- 

 gation with comoounded or miscellaneous manure, as compared with the 

 applications of simple or comparatively simple manure, the grass which 

 had received the miscellaneous manure was by far the richest, and the cat- 

 tle went first to the portion of the field so irrigated. These results are in 

 accordance with the principles of vegetable physiology, for the roots of 

 plants possess the faculty not only of seeking their food, but, when they 

 have arrived at it, to select that which is the most suitable to them; as Sir 

 Humphrey Davy long since ascertained ; they do not take up everything 

 that is presented to them. This whicli may be regarded as the selective 

 power of the roots of plants, appears to be a most important property for 

 practical application to the absorption of town manures, which, consisting 

 of the remains of everything taken into the town, are in the highest degree 

 miscellaneous. The quantity of the refuse and the coloring matters from 

 dye works discharged into the rivers passing through manufacturing towns, 

 often excites doubts as to the applicability of such waters for irrigation. 

 But the dark coloring matter which excites attention is principally indigo 

 and logwood, and the banks of such streams often exhibit the most luxuri- 

 ant vegetation; for but little injurious mineral matter and much valuable 

 manure is discharged from such works, and the important experiments of 

 De Sausure on the absorption of poisons by plants, prove that plants do 

 not sufi'cr much by exposure to weak poisonous solutions. This fact is also 

 corroborative of the view taken as to the importance of the extensive dif- 



