The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1870-02-08 00:00:00

TUIESD"'

THE DRY EARTH SYSTEM.
To the "Editor of the Mark Lane Erprees„
directed to a
e
er
In
st;;;;)filyous tion has b
tosittenof th o
10th w
Johnson
WO". on "
F.
B.
s..
arth
Composts,' by Mr. Cuthbert . , ,
and al the somewhat severe remarkso:ith
what
that "'ler °Pane in
tieltelhnen waetefraew
hive
reeeetil written
egtwtreade7rs W be dire:if:l
vlataid• Win"' your
eflt d earth system
against mystur—the inventor of the dry •
—I trust you will, in justice, allow me some little
space for reply.
I. I never have 6 • sa,,moood as a (recent) discovery
o In my first
the use of earth se • deodorizer.
:
pamphlet on the subj.vt "National Health
and Wealth," publieh,..cl about 10 years ago, I dia-
for the seoitary arrangements of •
timely referred to the. precept in the Book of
Deuteronom y
camp. In that same paint'hiet. Men, the boorva-
tions of Mr. Ha:table and Mr: H. C. Thomson, and
theexperiments of Professor Wa,v, were as distinctly
sok nowledged. So that with the eboirdity of annoatio•
log as a discovery the use of oluth 24 a deodoriser I
surely am not chargeable.
2. Neither am I Justly chargeable erit.h the mewed
absurdity, viz.. that of " endeavouring 'o promote
the introduction of earth closets by denouno.
ug other
and far more practicable modes of providing .'or the
excreta of crowded districts," The only aye's '" of
which this assertion of " far more extensive pract 4°'
ability" can in any sense be made in the water'
system. And in" National Health and Wealth,"
published before my invention of an earth closet, my
denunciation of that system, which I readily avow,
was as strong as it is now. lat that penod adduced
passages from " Reports of Sanitary Commissions,"
pronouncing the pollution of rivers by the water'
sewage system to be an immense national evil.
Hence, and because no remedy of that evil, which at
all events shall be generally applicable, is under that
system possible, and because the system itself is un-
supported by any one scientific or chemical principle
—hence my denunciation of it then, and hence its
continuance.
3. Allow me, air, to stale briefly the two or three .
points in the dry earth system for which I do claim
originality, forming the foundation of a system
which will he inner' far more •stwagivoly applivable
than Mr. Cuthbert W. Johnson supposes.
1. In order to perfect deodorization to complete
sanitary results, and to *souring the full value of the
manure, it is important that the earth he very dry.
Of this,previoue to my publication of it, I have found
no mention.
2. The capability of the repeated action of such
dry earth is an original discovery. After being used
in the proper quantity in • closet, if on removal It
be thoroughly mixed and dried, the compost may,
for deodorizing purposes, be used twenty times over;
and it will prove as efficient the lasi time as at the
first. Now, this was so far from being known,
previous to my accidental discovery of it, that on
my stating, in the before mentioned -pamphlet, that
I was then using the same earth for the fifth
time, Professor Way denied the possibility of it, and
was convinced to the contrary only by the asrehil
investigation of the fact on my own premises by his
late partner, Mr. T. M. Evans.
3. The principle of dealing with exoreta at once,
and in detail—a principle almost as essential to the
perfect working of the system, at least in closets, as
the deodorising power of dry earth ; this, too, is
original. And it is this, together with the ',occurrent
principle of the isolatioa of sewage evils of each
bonne, which gives to the system such immense
advantage over the water-sewage system.
4. So is the discovery original of the vast amount
of manure, which, wasted as it ever must be under
the water system, can, under the earth system, be
saved ; so that, while the adoption of the former
imposes on • town • heavy burden, the adoption of
the latter may supply • permanent net income at the
the rate, ay I believe, of from Ss. to 10a per head of
the population. See" The Impossibility Overcome,"
and "The Science of Manure a. the Food of Plants,"
advertised in your columns of to-day.
I am, sir, your humble servant,
HENRY MOULE.