inhabitants derive their sole supply of cool drinking-water, in their innocence supposing they are drinking the purest and best, are also poisoned. We give a single instance in illustration. A well in Market Street in the city of Newark, standing in front of the office of one of the daily journals of that city, had been so lauded for its cool and sparkling water, that people were wont to stop and refresh themselves with a drink from its pump: nay, instances were frequent of passers-by in the throng of Broad Street crossing over and going down to this pump, as if to a favorite soda-fount. It might have been a rival, for aught we know, to some such popular establishment in its vicinity. This well, with two others very much used, was designated by the chief engineer of the Water Board, to Professor Wurtz, as among those of

the city most resorted to. Samples were taken; and, on analysis, the one we have selected was found to contain, in the words of the professor, "about five grains to the gallon of an ingredient which cannot be traced to any other source than the infiltration of urine of man or beast, or both." He further recommended the closing of this well to the public use, and it was done.

These words require no comment: they speak for themselves. Let us pass now to a rapid consideration of our third division; namely, Third, The care of night-soil, its preparation and mode of handling. We have shown, that, on economic and sanitary principles, it should not pass into the sewage of the city. What goes into a navigable river, the source of the drinking-supply of that city, should be only the product of the water-shed. The care of the other waste should demand the most earnest attention of the authorities, and the application of the highest engineering skill; for this sewage belongs to the land, and not to the sea.

The modern earth-closet is an admirable contrivance for preserving this manure in private dwellings without annoyance to the inmates. The French were the first to set us the example. Formerly the excrements were preserved in the houses in open casks, from which they were collected, and placed in deep pits at Montfauçon, where they were dried by exposure to the air, and evaporation. It then became an object of commerce, which is now well known in this country under the name of poudrette. In French Flanders this

human soil is collected with especial care. Boussingault, speaking of the system in Flanders, says, "The reservoir for its preservation ought to be one of the essential articles in every farming establishment, as it is in Flanders, where there is always a cesspool in masonry, with an arch turned over it, for the purpose of collecting this invaluable manure. The bottom is cemented and paved; two openings are left, one in the middle of the turned arch for the introduction of the material; the other smaller, and made on the north side, is for the admission of the air, which is requisite for the fermentation." The Flemish reservoir may be of the dimensions of about thirty-five cubic yards. Whenever the necessary operations of the farm will permit, the carts are sent off to the neighboring town to purchase night-soil, which is then discharged into the reservoir, where it usually remains for several months before being carried out upon the land.

For the average American farmer, such cisterns and the system spoken of would be too complicated and too expensive; but a cistern of moderate depth and dimensions may be constructed on any farm. A good method of making night-soil portable at small expense is a great desideratum. The difficulty is in converting urine into a solid form. The use of a cistern for the purpose of collecting, storing, and fermenting the crude material seems indispensable: the next thing is to deodorize the material, and free it from the disgust attending its manipulation and application. In Paris, the material is rendered inodorous by gradually pouring into the box or vessel containing it a solution of zinc and chloride of calcium, until it ceases to exhale an unpleasant smell on stirring. The application of lime has been recommended for this purpose; but it is hardly necessary to explain to an intelligent mind that this would be at the risk of driving off some of the most valuable elements of the manure. There can be no surer way of getting rid of ammonia than by the addition of lime, especially in its quick state. It will not, of course, be understood, that, under this sweeping denunciation, gypsum, or sulphate of lime, is included. Ground plaster mingled with other drying materials might be advantageously added to fix the ammonia, and convert it, by the action of sulphuric acid contained, into sulphate of ammonia, which is a soluble salt, as is familiar to all intelligent agriculturists:

it, however, is slow in its action as a deodorizer. One of the most active and cheapest deodorizers is sulphate of iron, or green copperas. This material can be had at a cost of three cents per pound; and we might quote a familiar adage, and say, "A little goes a great way." This substance is soluble in two parts of cold water, or three-fourths its weight of boiling water. It can readily be applied in a fluid state, and will be found to be efficient in destroying the ill odor so objectionable in the use of this manure. The objection raised to its use is, that it combines with the phosphoric acid of the manure, and forms an insoluble salt of iron, thus withholding from the plant one of the most valuable elements contained in the manure. If the odor be killed, we should feel inclined to risk the loss of a portion of the phosphorus. We might also mention in this connection the use of muriatic acid, also a cheap agent, and acting almost instantaneously in its combination with the ammonia evolved in the fermentation of the manure. When the manure has lain in the tank or cistern until it is sufficiently fermented and deodorized, it should then be taken out and mingled in just proportions with an absorbent, which will serve the double purpose of putting the material into convenient shape to handle, and at the same time act as a divisor for an even distribution of this active and valuable fertilizer. The next question is, What shall this absorbent be? This will depend on the facilities at hand, or most easily procurable by the farmer. Dry clay, road-dust, the vegetable refuse of the farm, dried peat or muck, especially the latter, which in itself is a deodorizer, and a most valuable manure, from its consisting almost entirely, in a dried state, of organic matter. We have used very largely charcoal-braise, and, as the result of our own experience, place it in the highest rank, first as a deodorizer, secondly as an absorbent. Most readily does it act as an absorbent, and will fix the volatile ammonia without the use of muriatic acid or ground gypsum. Any quantity of this material can be had in the charcoal-burning regions, and at an expense simply of the labor of handling and cost of freight. For garden use, and where the soil is of stiff and light-colored clays, it acts most admirably in lightening up the soil, rendering it more friable, and also blackening its color, thereby attracting the rays of the sun, and warming

up into genial heat cold and slow soil. There are other materials within the easy reach of many, such as saw-dust for those in the neighborhood of saw-mills: this forms a good absorbent, and, as it decays in the ground, gives valuable food to the plants. We have largely used spent tan in compost. This seems at first sight a very intractable material; but, in thankful remembrance of the late Professor Mapes, we would suggest a mode taught by him which soon converts and subdues this stubborn material into practicable use: it is simply composting the material with a salt-and-lime mixture. The process is simple, and may be thus described: suspend in a cask of water a basket of rock-salt, facilitate its solution by daily stirring, and, when the water has taken up all the salt it can hold in solution, then use it in slacking quick-lime the product is a chloride of lime, which, when composted with the spent tan, soon converts it into a shape fit to be used as a fertilizer, and into material which could be most advantageously used in combination with night-soil. While the night-soil lay in the cistern, the spent tan could be undergoing the salt-and-lime treatment. The refuse boneblack of the sugar refineries has been largely recommended by authors; but this material has such a glazed and hardened surface, that it requires treatment with sulphuric or muriatic acid to render it convertible, and in addition, though it was formerly a material gladly given away by the refineries, it has, since the manufacture of phosphate of lime in this country, become an article of commercial value, alike with the bones of animals.

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Thus much for the mode of treatment, and rendering available for agricultural use, this much neglected fertilizer. We have spoken of its value as furnishing all the elements for a crop, of the labor saved over the proper care and distribution of barnyard-manure, As an article of commercial value, hear once more the words of the learned Liebig: importation of urine or of solid excrements from a foreign land is quite equivalent to the importation of corn and cattle. All these matters in a certain time assume the form of corn, flesh, and bones: they pass into the bodies of men, and again assume the same form which they originally possessed."

Lastly, We have spoken of the connection between the

utilizing of this material and the health of our towns and cities. The inception and the spread of contagious and infectious diseases, the result of crowd poison, every day's investigation, the deductions of science which crowd daily upon us in relation to this vital subject, the poisoning of our sources of water-supply, the breeding of infection in the air we breathe, all combine to give the subject of this paper a deep and serious import, which should command the earnest attention of every intelligent member in a community.

We hope to see the day when what is now an intolerable nuisance, and a source of great disquiet, this material called "night-soil," may become the means of spreading fertility over our lands, and producing plenty and prosperity throughout our borders.

Mr. HERSEY of Hingham. This subject of fertilizers is one of the most important which can engage the attention of farmers. We differ so much in regard to what we shall do, that many of us do wrong, and I confess that I am very much in the dark on important points. There are some things, however, that seem to be self-evident to me; and the first is, that stable-manure furnishes all the necessary material to keep our land up in its proper condition. The second is, that our State does not furnish a sufficient quantity of that material to properly fertilize all the lands that we desire to cultivate. Consequently we are driven in every direction, and of late we have been driven in the direction of the concentrated mercantile fertilizers. I am very much in the dark in regard to them; and I think there is great question as to whether we can afford to use them or not. I rise for the purpose of calling up this part of the matter, and, if we can get any light upon it, I, for one, should like to have it. I want to know, first, whether we can afford to use special fertilizers, and, secondly, whether, if used year after year, they will keep the land up. Now, the first question is not so easy to answer. If we could answer that, it would be an answer really to the second. The second question, it seems to me, is one that we can answer in time. I do not know but that there are individuals in this room who can answer it to-day. If there are, I wish they would; for I consider that this is a very important question. If there are any concen