88 THE BOOK OF THE ROSE chap. 



obvious inconvenience about this in the summer, 

 and we have at that time to choose our nights with 

 care ; I do not then put it on the Eose beds, as it 

 has sometimes to be done hastily, and more care and 

 better light would be required. It should be under- 

 stood that the contents of the overflow or second 

 cesspool are nearly as good as the night-soil itself, 

 for much of the value is in the liquid. It is desir- 

 able, if possible, to have a separate tank with pumps 

 for the contents of housemaids' slop-pails ; this will 

 be the most valuable liquid manure that comes from 

 the house, and will generally not be so offensive but 

 that, with choice of opportunity, it may be applied 

 in the day-time. 



Soot water is good, but would be expensive and 

 troublesome to use in quantity; it is more useful 

 for pot plants. The soot should be tied up in a bag 

 and sunk in a cask or tank, and the result is a clear 

 liquid of a wine colour, much appreciated by gar- 

 deners for mild fertilisation. ' 



Artificial Manures. — It is not necessary to go 

 into the discovery by the great scientists of the 

 possibility of manufacturing by chemistry plant 

 manures, which are called artificial not because 

 they are not the real things, but simply because they 

 are made and compounded by art and science. It 

 will suffice to state that those wonderful fellows, 

 the analytical chemists, who are always wanting to 

 find out what things are made of, showed that as 

 growing plants consist of certain soluble minerals 

 in different proportions, so (they insisted) those 

 minerals with the addition of nitrogen would, in 

 the proper proportions, make real, though artifi- 

 cially made, manure. They first of all discovered 



