452 TRANSACTIONS OF THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE. 



when night soil is added, the chief value of which consists in 

 the peculiar ferment it gives to the soil. Sometimes in the use 

 of barnyard manure, there will be either sulphuretted hydrogen 

 or carbonic acid generated, and the soil will become deadened. 

 Such land requires lime or potash, for the purpose of decompos- 

 ing the fiber that is not in a state of ferment. 



Dr. Trimble. — Do you think nothing is lost in the ocean ? 



Prof. Mapes. — I think there is not. This world is a very old 

 place. I doubt very much whether the Chinese, claiming 14,000 

 years for their own history, include within a one-millionth part 

 of the age of this globe. And if any of the fertile portion of the 

 earth were permanently lost, there would be a time when the 

 earth would become sterile. I do not think Providence ever 

 makes mistakes in His laws. 



Among fluid manures, night-soil is of very great value, and 

 human urine particularly; but it should never be applied undi- 

 luted or in its fresh state. The changes it undergoes are very 

 great, and it should have time for them. These changes are 

 greatly assisted by the presence of sulphuric acid. When made 

 very dilute, it is the cheapest and best manure you can have ; 

 and the solid portions of night-soil are the next so. A poudrette 

 properly made from night-soil is the best manure manufactured. 

 I am very willing to sell phosphates, of course ; but whenever 

 you can obtain night-soil at $1.50 per load of thirty bushels, do 

 not buy phosphates. Where you wish to put the manure, place 

 charcoal dust, muck and salt and lime mixture, or earth from the 

 woods, on each side, and drive the night-soil cart across this 

 strip, throwing the night-soil in the middle, and then covering it 

 over, and there will be no odor after it is once covered. At the 

 end of a month it may be mixed, by using an old-style potato 

 digger, and no offensive odor will escape from it. Such a man- 

 ure is more valuable at that cost, than any other you can get. 

 Poudrette made in that way is a very different article from what 

 you buy, where you have to pay for cooperage, clerk-hire, freight, 

 and the expenses of the company that make it ; and you have 

 plenty of the material at home, for you can make poudrette with 

 head-lands, and make it extremely well. When you have so 

 treated night-soil, you will be perfectly surprised to find, if you 

 add it to the compost heap, how much will be rendered soluble, 

 and what immense amounts of water can be charged with it and 

 spread upon your land. 



