HOME MADE GUANO. 
115 
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HOME-MADE GUANO.—NO 3. 
Contents of Vaults. —Of this last enumerated sub¬ 
stance, so nearly allied to guano in its character, it is 
needless to speak, of its great value as a fertilizer. 
Everybody knows and acknowledges it; and almost 
everybody turns away with ineffable disdain from 
any -practical consideration of its utility. As if, what 
has once ministered to the gratification of the palate, 
and perhaps'been the means of yielding the highest 
enjoyments which gluttony knows or can appreciate, 
has, by this one metamorphosis, been for ever pre¬ 
cluded from any further use or benefits. Nature is. 
not so prodigal of her means; her great Author, though 
he can create original materials with the same facility 
that he uses such as have already been called into 
existence, by his own example teaches his creatures a 
more rigid economy. And he effects this object in a 
way to elicit the admiration, and challenge the 
highest respect of his intelligent creatures. He has 
prescribed rules, Deuteronomy xxiii. 12, 14, which, 
although designed for a rude and semi-civilized 
people, embody principles of utility, whose wis- 
lom cannot be excluded, wherever they can be con¬ 
veniently applied. 
Before these offensive materials are brought again 
lo the notice of mankind, they are blended with the 
earth from which they have been temporarily sepa¬ 
rated ; are intimately mixed with the soil ; they lose 
alt their repellent odor; the original and ultimate ele¬ 
ments are there evolved, and form new combinations; 
first with the soil, and afterwards with the luxuriant 
vegetables that spring up in their midst; and the wav-; 
inggrass, the nodding corn, and even the stately forest! 
that lifts its majestic forms far heavenward, owe their; 
whole strength and substance to this loathed material, 
or its kindred elements; while to the dahlia and lily, 
it lends a lovelier hue ; and the rose blushes deeper, 
and sends forth a still more delicious fragrance from 
the contact. 
While economy and our interest lead us to investi¬ 
gate and provide a proper mode of appropriating this 
substance, to our soils, a just appreciation of cleanli¬ 
ness, health, taste, and even decency, require a total 
modification of the present system in regard to its dis¬ 
posal. In the country, vaults are usually constructed 
so shallow as to be in the highest degree offensive to 
the double sense of sight and smell; in cities, they are 
almost equally offensive to smell and taste. They 
are sunk deep, it is true, but not beyond reach of our 
olfactories ; while from their polluted reservoirs, the 
fountains which before ministered to the health and 
comfort of all, are now the prolific sources of disease 
and abhorrence. Who has not smelt (and even 
tasted) the loathsome mixture from the ancient pumps 
in the lower wards of New York, which formerly 
welled out water as pure as nectar ? And to such an 
extent have some of the wells of Boston become con¬ 
taminated from this source, that Dr. Jackson, an able 
and entirely reliable chemist, found a-n appreciable 
per centage of the contents of their vaults mixed with 
them! Are such things to be tolerated in this en¬ 
lightened age, and must our interests, health, enjoy¬ 
ment, be longer prejudiced, by the grossest neglect 
to appropriate a small part of that invention to this■ 
subject, which is daily and successfully applied to 
objects of much more difficulty, and far less conse¬ 
quence ? Every village in the Union can well afford 
to pay $10,000, and every city $1,000,000 each, for 
the invention of such a vault as would effectually se¬ 
cure every particle of matter deposited in it; prevent 
the escape of any noxious effluvia; and, finally, allow 
of a ready and economical removal. Let some of out 
inventive and scientific minds be applied to this subject, 
and this great desideratum will not remain long"un¬ 
achieved. The State Agricultural Society of New 
York, the American Institute, and every State Agri¬ 
cultural Society in the Union ought to offer a reward 
beyond all others from &200 to $1000 for the success¬ 
ful accomplishment of this much desired object.(n) 
Vaults should be differently constituted lo suit dif¬ 
ferent situations. In all cases, they should be per¬ 
fectly tight; in some they may be made of mason 
work, in others of strong, durable plank ; and when 
they cannot be sunk below the surface, as is some¬ 
times the case in cities, they may be made of some 
of the mixed metals, properly guarded against corro¬ 
sion, such as neutralized zinc, coated sheet or boiler 
iron, &c.» which might be easily removed with their 
entire contents. Until some more convenient or eco¬ 
nomical, or less bulky combination is suggested; turf, 
peat, tan-bark, saw-dust, charcoal, or sulphate of 
lime may be added to the contents of the vault, from 
time to time, to combine with and disinfect the vola¬ 
tile ingredients, prevent their escape, and hold them 
for future use. Quick lime (carbonate of lime) is a 
wasteful application, as it expels the ammonia. It 
is useful only to purify and sweeten the air. 
When easily accessible (as they ought always to 
be), these contents, thus neutralized and rendered as 
inoffensive as ashes or turf, should be frequently re¬ 
moved and mixed with other compost, or, what is 
better, at once spread over the soil and mixed through 
it. These materials possess all the constituents of, 
Peruvian guano, and in a form nearly as concentrated; 
and if effectually husbanded and added to the soil, 
would increase the crops of the United Stales annu¬ 
ally, from $50,000,000 to $100,000,000, and save 
incalculably in the health and comfort of the inhabit¬ 
ants 
It is hardly necessary to fortify these suggestions 
by any authority, jet it may be well enough to say, 
that Mr. Haywood, a gentleman of great experience 
and ingenuity, has made an able and extended report 
on this subject recently in England, in which he af¬ 
firms, that the excrements of one hundred of the rigid¬ 
ly dieted inmates of the Lunatic Asylum at Derby, 
will keep one hundred acres of land on the four 
course system of rotation in the highest state of fer¬ 
tility. 
The use of the above manures would save im¬ 
mensely in the labor of exterminating weeds which 
are produced from compost made up of barn manures, 
and the vegetable alluvial deposits of road drains 
and ditches, all of which are highly charged with 
obnoxious weeds and grasses, the prevention of whose 
growth and maturity constitute so large a share of the 
labor of the farmer in successfully rearing his crops. 
Travellers allege, that the considerate and careful 
Chinese never use other than the last above-men¬ 
tioned fertilizer for their tillage crops, and by a rigid 
adherence to this practice for years, they save them¬ 
selves the double labor, of first planting noxious ve¬ 
getables, and then, with an infinite degree of pains, 
eradicating them. This system, long persisted in, has 
resulted in the removal of every species of vegeta¬ 
tion, except the sole one vimich the husbandman has 
