The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1868-06-18
The Refuse Of cities-Agriculture.

lated from a journal Of the city of Cologne
hv an intelligent adopted German citizen
- R;cbmond which is full of interest as
vel, to the inhabitants engaged in trade
ona commerce as to those who till the soil.
Az the population Of the country increases,
the subjects treated in this paper become
more and more important. until finally they
force themselves upon the public in o man
ner that is not to be resisted.
Young as this country may be called, We
arc already powerfully impressed with the
disastrous consequences of the perpetual
drain upon the soil by concentrating the
products Of tillage in cities from which mo-
thing is returned. We plainly see that in
course of not very great number Of
years thatland which our ancestors found
to be fruitful to degree that entitled it to
the scriptural eulogy Of the !" land Of milk
and honey" may become desert, from
which all animal life would be compelled to
fec, as there would be nothing there for Its
sustenance.
Notwithstanding that this is but too true,
there may DO many who may argue that
things are not yet desperate-there is no
use in being in hurry-take your time
ga little more sleep and a little more slum-
ber." This is great mistake. A land
which is permitted to deteriorate beyond the
stage where efforts for its resuscitation are
justifable by the prospect of compensation
must be left as 50 much added to what the
world calls desert. 1t must not be allowed
to 90 down in the scale Of productiveness
to that fatal point.
The older communities of what is called
the Old World are every year discovering
the Importance of giving back to the land
as nearly as possible all that is taken from 1t.
This is absolutely essential to maintain Its
productiveness, and to secure not only the
proper rewards to the tiller Of the soil, but
it is, moreover, indispensable to the preser-
walton of health in those great centres OF
population where the chief consumption OF
the fruits of the earth is carried on. The
offal and fecal matter of such compact
bodies of men must be disposed of in some
way that will prevent the air and the water
from being impregnated with noxious gases
and poisonous ingredients that generate
disease and offend the senses. The attempt
to dispose of these by the system OF sewer
age heretofore pursued is utterly futile. 1t
has lost to agriculture all that might be
saved to it, and has failed to rescue society
from the very evils it was designed to
cure. The streams have been corrupted,
the air has been poisoned, and the public
health prejudiced. In short, the essay, by
an easy and Indirect way, to put away Of
fence has been punished by the returning
offence in its worst form to "plague the in
ventors." ...
Any means that can now be employed, in
this country, to relieve cities Of the rapidly
accommodating "refuse," and secure to the
lands from which it originated the fertili-
zing properties of this waste, will add in
conceivably to the health Of city popula-
tons, and do more than anything else that
can bedevised to stop the deterioration Of the
soil and put it ON the way of improvement.
1t is quite time that this matter should
attract public attention here. Sewerage
which empties "refuse into rivers is both
unwise and slovenly. The rivers are too
valuable, for their fish, for highways, for
the purposes of pleasure in this world OF
many troubles, to be thus made the vehicles
of offence. 70 be used thus is an abuse
which the rivers themselves will punish
with terrible retribution. We need only
refer to the Thames, which, in it's wrath at
the outrage it had suffered, drove out the
very Lords and Commons of the realm from
the House of Parliament with the Indlg-
nant tornado of stencil that it hurled upon
them ~ = @
Even this is not the chief sin Of cities
their own comfort and health are more espe-
cially their own affair. But when they
waste the elements of productiveness that
should be restored to the earth they sin
against society in general-against man
kind. lsr.s s.g-t..s sst a.
The recent change in the politico-social
condition of the South, as it certainly rem
ders it more necessary, should the better
d;snose us to the consideration Of this SUBJ
;ect To diminish the area Of cultivation
to each man, and increase the productive
ness of that area, is now our policy. To
pursue the system of relying altogether
upon imported concentrated manures will
not do. There must be the variation OF
employing, in addition to this, all the
homemade manures" that CON possibly
be gathered together by industry and in
genuity. There are certain elements in
these which cannot be secured by the use
alone of the imported fertilizers, which
have only assisted to facilitate the deteriora-
ton Of some lands. If to the domestic sys-
TENS Of each farm the cities shall add the
vast refuse that may be saved within
them, we may readily see that few years
of intelligent and energetic husbandry will
produce change in the surface Of the
country that will be intellectually benef-
eial in promoting comfort and abundance
for society.
WEST PoINT.-The ceremonies of COM
mencement at this institution were con-
Quoted with more than the usual |" circum-
stance" the, present year-the southern