GUANO— NIGHT SOIL. 563 



Gardeners may substitute advantageously for farm-yard 

 manure the follovdng compost. In a hole or dry ditch deposit 

 during the year all the leaves, straws, vegetable refuse, that can 

 be collected; over these pour daily the "house slops." If 

 offensive smell arises stop it by Peat, or Peat charcoal, or any 

 substance which will advantageously deodorise putrescent 

 matter. Should gas-water be obtainable, an occasional drench 

 with this win be advantageous. To the whole add from time 

 to time all that remains after heaps of wood and cuttings have 

 been burnt. The " mixen " will contain all the eight sub- 

 stances by which plants are artificially fed. 



Guano, the deposit of sea-birds on dry islands in the Pacific, 

 is the richest of all natural manures. It will contain, if of 

 good quality, in the best possible state for application to land, 

 about 17 per cent, of ammonia, and 35 per cent, of phosphate 

 of lime, upon which alone its value depends. But it is enor- 

 mously adulterated. 



There is perhaps no garden crop which this does not suit, if not 

 applied too much at a time ; the liquid form -is preferred by gardeners. 

 It would be a most valuable ingredient in the compost just mentioned. 



Night Soil. — This is a material of great energy, and was 

 probably one of the first substances employed by man when he 

 began to discover the value of manure. It forms the principal 

 resource of the Chinesej whose agriculture may be assumed, 

 owing to the unchanging habits of that people, still to bear a 

 strong resemblance to its primaeval condition. In its ordinary 

 state this is largely composed of water, and is rich in phosphates 

 and ammoniacal compounds ; but it runs rapidly into a state 

 of fermentation, evolving nauseous gases, and becoming too 

 offensive for employment in its natural state. Moreover, if so 

 used, it proves absolutely poisonous to vegetation unless it is 

 largely mixed with other substances, or diluted with water. 

 The most advantageous and economical manner of employing 

 it is to add powdered charcoal, peat, charred sawdust, or even 

 mere clay, daily, to the receptacles in which it is deposited, 

 by which means its peculiar gases are detained, and its offen- 

 sive odour destroyed. Lime should never be mixed with it, if 



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