Utilisation of Excrementitious Matter. 
115 
With recrard to the earth to be used, I have found ordinary garden 
surface soil quite effectual ; and a subsoil containing a large pro- 
portion of clavor silicates of alumina and potash, would furnish a 
good material ; but if clay soil be scarce, an admixture of coal- 
ashes or street sweepings would not be objectionable. But 
nowhere could there be any difficulty in procuring such a supply 
as should, by repeated use, be converted into a highly valuable 
compost. For consider how towns are supplied with straw by 
farmers who undertake all the cartage without payment for the 
sake of the manure. If the three or four loads of manure returned 
for every ton of straw delivered, is an adequate compensation, 
such a compost as would be effected by five or seven-fold use 
would (as we shall see from actual experiments) be highly 
remunerative, and the farmer can more readil}- furnish this earth, 
which is to be returned to him-, than the straw. 
II. Facts and Testimonies as to the Efficiency of the System, 
II. — Let me instance cases where this system has been applied 
to the satisfaction of those concerned. 
jNIr. Young, a mason, residing near Dorchester, has for two 
years had an earth-closet in a small room within ten feet of that 
used by his lodgers, the curate's family, as a dining-room. He 
has removed the earth only once a week, but never has any 
offensive smell been perceived in his house. 
Major Xugent, R.E., under instructions from the War Office, 
tried the system at Portland ; and whatever may have been 
the judgment of the authorities at the War Office, from the 
statement made by that officer to myself after four or five months' 
experiment, I cannot doubt that the tenor of his report was 
favourable. Before making it, he invited me to judge on the 
spot how far I was satisfied with the experiments, which had 
fully satisfied himself. I went to Portland, and inspected the 
two closets which had been used by sixteen convicts, and 
found the place in which these stood was free from offence. 
In company with another engineer officer, and the clerk of 
the works, I next visited a pug-mill, the use of which I had 
recommended for mixing the contents of the boxes. Two 
men brought thither a box containing the deposit of two davs. 
This was emptied on the floor, without causing any offensive 
smell ; but as it passed through the mill a slight effluvium was 
perceptible. Within ten minutes, however, the mass became 
simply dark, inoffensive earth. And we agreed that if there 
White, and learnt from them that the price of No. 1, with lifting handle, is 
2^. 7s. B(/. ; with self-action, 2?. 15s. ; the machinery alone, if sent to be fixed 
to a common closet, costs \l. 5s. The price of No. 2 is il. 10s. — P. H. F. 
I 2 
