EARTH CLOSETS.

Bay of Plenty Times, Volume II, Issue 196, 22 July 1874, Page 3

EARTH CLOSETS.

(From the Illustrated London Ntuvs )

Lvnori: as philanthropists may, drainage jg jiiw.-iis iSeir rt>i-b ahead, and its heavy rate sends up the rent the ccsspod is gradually bccomimr a dime of She pas!, the privy vault and the sewers are an institution. Ihe poison too often sinks in !!s riveru-iird course though fha subsoil into the well ; and even at the point, above tidal influence whence water is supplied fV.tni the Th <mea, the river nymph -to whose “ glassy wave” schoolboys have addressed si) many eop'ies of hexameters and lyrics is calculated to ham received into her bosom the outpourings of 70d,00(.) drains. Ami so the Calder receives the it ;Vh of all Halifax t(ii> Lfebbe, imd the two rivers flow ou lovingly to the point where the water is tillered and supplies Wakefield. The Medio,-ft and the Ire well are also “silent Highways” f< r Qdh through Salford, and about two millions and a ind{ have been laid out already ou eaetiim forth the refuse of Loudon into the Thames. °

livery experiment to deodorise water only ends in vanity and vexation, and by slow degrees the Eev Henry Monle’a doctrine, that in household service it is cheaper to procure dry earth than to sp »d water, meets with fuller acceptance. Mr Wilson of Edging),>n Main, speaks of Mr Mouths method as the only one which practically effects the separation of the feHalising matter from the. water in which it is contained and points out (hat earth with much organic matter in it deodorises more rapidly than when it contains little, •'shes, soot, charcoal, may nil be used for this purpose, provided they are kept from wet ; but dry earth or clay subsoil, small and we 11 sifted, arc the most active deodorisers. Hence the peculiar applicability of earth instead of water to closets. The earth must, bo supplied in detail and not in masses, and these layers arc, in fact, (lie whole secret of the process. Its deodorising agency is so powerful that, when the deposits are removed and placed under cover, the mass smells hke fresh loam. Every trace of the original and its accompaniments is completely absorbed that the earth can bo used eight or ton limes. The meah through which it should bo sifted is about a fourth of an inch, and 11b 9ozs or i S pint should descend from t he box at each lime of using. It has been argued that the necessary manipulation would act practically as a veto ou the system ; but it may bo argued in reply that it is easier to carry dry earth up stairs than to pump water into a cistern, especially when frost has pipes in its grip. Public institutions have found difficulty in its application. Through the influence of I>r Fawcus, who has tried several experiments upon it, the system which lie commenced in the gaol of Alipore, near Calcutta, baa been adopted in nearly two hundred barracks and public buildings throughout the Fast. For two years past it Ims proved a great, boon to the sick wards at 11 it chin, and the National ft ills Association sent their testimony to its use at Wimbledon. Mr Simms, in a memorandum on disinfection, dated Privy Council Office, 1866.” also gives his official sanction to the earth closets in country places, where proper drainage is not provided. Beyond this guarded recommendation Government has not as yet ventured to go. A little village in Sussex affords a striking proof that tho “ manipulation” of the system is’by no means difficult. A few of the leading inhabitants have undertaken to work it, and enough is dried in a day and night for 3s G 1 (upon the’same plan that bricklayers pursue with their sand) to supply filty cottages. In two large towns companies have been formed for the some end. Tt.ey have set up drying sheds and manure warehouses, and not, only remove tho pails nightly, or clear out the vaults at intervals, bat supply dry earth if needed ; and a company in Bedford street Covenfc Hardens, manufacture earth closets. It is, in truth, only the application of the right, agency by which all tho dust is removed in Paris, whore no dustbins are allowed by law.

Custom in this matter would eoon become second rat,ore when quickened by tlio discovery that it pays” to adopt. By pursuing it steadily cottagers are enabled to have very much larger vegetable crops, and farmers have been quite ready to pay £3 a ton for such manure when they can get it. Experiments have been proved in fifteen cases that a quarter of an acre manured with one ewt of it, which had been kept five months and used seven times, can grow swedes one third heavier than ground dressed with superphosphate. Another farmer substituted earth which had passed seven time through an earth closet for crushed bones, at the rate of one hundred weight per acre, and grew a most admirable crop of white turnips. Mr llickenson, of New Park Farm, Hampshire, also eives his experience to the effect that the mixture is equal to crushed bones in power, more immediate in its action, and calculated to last three years in flic ground, fine b arc a few of the benefits of a system which might almost revolutionise our present drainage and add permanent he dth and wealth. As Mr Moulo well observes in his “ Manure for the Million : ” —“ In God’s providence there is no waste. It was never meant that even privy soil or the sink water, or the water of the slop bucket should ba useless ; still less was it meant thatlhov should poison fresh air and produce sickness,”' and too often death.