EARTH CLOSETS.

Hawke's Bay Weekly Times, Volume 1, Issue 11, 18 March 1867, Page 61

EARTH CLOSETS.

[Tromthe Illustrated,London,News.]. Labob 83 drainage is: always .their rock And its heavy rate sends up the rent. The cesspool fs gradually becoming a thing of the past, but the privy vault and the sewers are an institution. The-poiion too often sinks in itsriverward course through ,the subsoil into the well; and even at the point above tidal influence, whence water is supplied from the Thames, the river nymph—to whose “ glassy waves ” schoolboys haveadmany copies of hexameters and lyrics—ris calculated to have received into her. bosom the outpourings of drains. And so the Calder receives the filth of all Halifax through the Hebble, and the rivers flow on lovingly to the point where their water is filtered and supplies Wakefield. The Medlock and the Irwell are also “silent highways” for filth through Salford, and about two millionsand a half have been laid out already on casting forth the refuse of London into into "the Thames.

Every experiment to deodorise water only ends in vanity and vexation, and by slow, dogrees the Eev. Henry Moule’s doctriue, that in household service it is cheaper toprocure dry earth than to spoil water meets with fuller acceptance. Mr. Wilson, of Edington Mains, speaks of Mr. Moule’s method as the only one which practically effects .the separation of the fertilising matter from the water in which it is contained, and points out that earth with mucn organic matter in it deodorises more rapidly than when it contatns. little. Ashes, soot, or charcoal, may all be used for this purpose, provided they are kept wet; but dry earth or. clay subsoil, small and well sifted, are the most active deodorisers. Hence the peculiar applicability of earth instead of water to closets. The earth must be supplied in detail and not in masses, and these layers are, in fact, the whole secret of the process. It 3 deodorising agency is so powerful, that when the deposits are removed and placed under cover, the mass smells like fresh loam. Every trace of the originaal and its accompaniments is .so completely absorbed that the same earth oan be used eight or ten times. The mesh through which it sho.uld sbe sifted: is- about a fourth of-an inch, and lib 9oz, or pints, should descend from the box at each time of using. It has been argued that the necessary manipulation would act practically as a veto on the system ; but it may be urged in ;roply that it is easier to carry dry earth up stairs than to pump water into a cistern, especially when frost has the pipes in it 3 grip. Public institutions have found bo difficulty in its application. Through the influence of Dr. Fawcus, [who has tried several experiments upon it, the system which he commenced in the gaol of Alipore, near Calcutta, has been adopted in nearly two hundred barracks and public buildings throughout the East, For two years past it has proved a great boon to the sickwards at Hitchin, and. the National Eifle Association sent their testimony to its use at Wimbledon. Mr Simms, in a memorandum on disinfection, dated “Privy Council 'Office,. July, 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 the “manipulation” of the system is by no means difficult. A few of the leading inhabitants have undertaken to work it, and enough earth is dried in a day and night for 3s 6d (upon the same plan that bricklayers pursue with their sand) to supply fifty cottages. In two large towns companies have been formed for'the same end. They have set up dry-ing-sheds and manure warehouses, and not only remove the pails nightly, or clear out the vaults at intervals, but supply dry earth if needed; and a company' in Bedford-street, .Covent-garden, manufactures earth closets. It is, in truth, only the application of the night agency by which all the. dust is removed in Paris, where no'dustbins are allowed by law, ;r - Custom in this matter would- soon become second nature, when quickened by the discovery that “it pays” to adopt it. 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 proved in fifteen cases that a quarter of an acre manured with one owt of it, which had been kept' five months and used , seven times, ean grow swedes one-third heavier than ground dressed with superphosphate. Another., farmer . substituted earth which bad passed seven times through an earthcloset for crushed bones at the rate of one cwt per aere, and grew a most admieable crop of white turnips. Mr. Dickinson, of -New Park Farm, Hampshire,’also gives 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;inthe -ground. Suoharea few. of the henefits of asyatem

whiekmight almost revolutionise our' pre: sent and add. permanent, wealth to- health. AsMrMoule* well observes? in Lis «• Manure, for 1 /the Millionin' Q'Pd’s providence there ia not waste. ' I wasnever meant that even the privy-soil, or the sink-water, or the water of the slop bucket .should be useless} still less was it meant that they shovld poison fresh air and produce sickness," and too often death. 1