French Experimental Farm at Vaujours. 
291 
next to tlie india-rubber at the left end conies the male screw 
of a bayonet joint ; at the other end is the female screw with the 
bayonet attached ; the joint is united to the pipes by an iron 
collar ; a half-turn of the screw suffices to make all fast. Nothiiifj;- 
is easier than the carriage and adjustment of these parts ; one 
cart will carry enough to form a conduit 200 yards long ; the 
workmen bear a length of pipe on their shoulders to its resting- 
place, the ends are supported on a wooden X to make a join ; a 
boy is left at the stop-cock to open or shut it as directed, and an 
assistant levels the surl'ace with a rake. The foreman works 
the hose, and carries, coiled up at pleasure, the short length of 
india-rubber which forms the last section in the channel. 
To give an idea of the work performed, it may be stated that 
in April about 1000 tons were applied in 25 days, or 40 tons 
per day. Since the morning was spent in fetching the " soil " 
by barge from Bondy, the machinery working in the after- 
noon made only half a day of work. In the dry season, when 
the " soil " is diluted with three times its bulk of water, the 
machinery was in full work, and distributed 150 tons per day. 
" The price of a length (8 yards 2 feet) of moveable tube (2/„-inch 
gauge) is about 8s. 4c?., or double the price of a fixed conduit of 
the same bore. It is laid with such ease, and the joints are so 
well secured, that a 4i-inch gauge might be safely used instead 
of the smaller size, so as to form a continuous channel of the 
same diameter from the point of suction to that of distribution. 
This would be sound economy in regard both of the discharge 
of the fluid and the hand-labour required." 
Paris Niffht-Soil. 
Our interest in this enterprise centres on its employment of 
the vida/ige or night-soil of Paris, on the economy of its appli- 
cation, the crops to which it is naturally adapted, the best 
time and modes of applying it, and, lastly, on the hindrances, 
restrictions, and changes of plan which season and climate, state 
of markets, and supply of labour have imposed on that appli- 
cation. 
This vidange must not be confounded with the sewage of 
English towns ; it is night-soil dei'ived from the cesspools or 
pits with which the houses are generally furnished. These 
are emptied once or twice in a year at night by carts fur- 
nished with a pumping apparatus which adjusts itself to an 
orifice connected with the pits. The carts then convey the 
soil to a great sink (depotoir) placed at the outskirts of the 
city, from whence it is forced by steam-pumps through a tunnel 
to the great reservoir at Bondy, where it is either dried and 
manufactured into " Poudrette," or conveyed to the farm reser- 
voir in barge-loads of 40 tons along the Canal de I'Ourcq. 
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