100 BULLETIN 414, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
ered by planks loosely laid, and these covered with 1 or 2 inches of 
earth from the excavation. 
In large or permanent camps the problem of disposal is not so 
simpie. For such camps, when they can not be connected with a 
city or town sewage system, purification of some sort must be pro- 
vided. This may be effected by a septic tank for the preliminary 
treatment and ultimate disposal on the surface, by subsurface dis- 
tribution, or by sand filtration. Such an installation usually will be 
found to be beyond the skill of the average official in charge of the 
camp and it will be advisable, in any case, to consult a reliable 
sanitary engineer. It will be required in so few camps and the 
details of the construction are of such a technical nature that no 
attempt wili be made to enter into the subject here. It is treated 
as simply as possible in a previous bulletin of the department. 1 The 
department, through the Office of Public Roads and Rural Engineer- 
ing, is prepared to give advice based on specific conditions on appli- 
cation. 
METHODS OF GARBAGE DISPOSAL. 
The following methods of garbage disposal, arranged in order of 
merit, were found in use in convict camps: (1) Incineration; (2) 
carting away by farmers; (3) burial; (4) dumping into covered pits; 
(5) feeding to hogs at the camp; (6) spreading over the surface of 
the ground. 
The simplest of the foregoing methods is that of having the gar- 
bage hauled away by farmers, who, as a rule, are glad to take it for its 
value as hog feed. As it is also a matter of great convenience to the 
camp authorities to have the garbage removed at regular and fre- 
quent intervals, this method generally is used whenever the necessary 
arrangements can be made. Furthermore, if there be proper pro- 
vision for the sanitary storage of the waste material for the time 
during which it necessarily must remain at the camp, there can be 
no objection to it from a sanitary standpoint. But as actually prac- 
ticed in many of the camps visited the method of storage was very 
primitive. It was the custom, after each meal, to dump both liquid 
and solid garbage into one or two wooden barrels, usually placed 
from 100 to 200 feet from the main camp structures. Such con- 
tainers are rarely cleaned or provided with covers and, standing 
open, their contents rapidly become sour and attract swarms of flies. 
The barrels swell and warp and allow the liquid garbage to leak 
through and saturate the ground; and they rapidly deteriorate, often 
to the point of f ailing apart altogether in the process of dumping. 
Much better containers, of metal with tight-fitting covers, can be 
1 Bulletin Xo. 57, U. S. Department of Agriculture: "Water Supply, Plumbing, and Sewage Disposal 
for Country Homes." Copies of this bulletin may be obtained from the Superintendent of Documents, 
Government Printing Office, Washington, D. C, at 10 cents a copy. 
