New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1872-05-30
SCIENTIFIC lSTREET-CLEANING.

Mr. Browns contract for cleaning the streets
has happily been declared void, and though he
will probably contest its validity in the courts,
which will, of course, bid him depart in peace
with large damages to satisfy his bereaved
soul, there is practically an end of him for
the present Let us hope it will prove good
radiance. But New-York can no more do
without street-cleaner than without a Con-
troler, particularly at this season of the year /;
and it behooves the Board of Police, to whom
the duty of enforcing the STRENGTHENING con-
tract descends, to furnish a contractor at once,
or, better still perhaps, do the work for the City
at taxpayers direct cost. 1t is work of mag
nitude to warrant the establishment of a spe-
cal commission; at any rate some depart
ment, that of Health, Police, or Parks, ought
to be held to strict responsibility for the
performance of the work. not at the least ex-
pense, but in the most thorough manner. No
higher consideration than that of cost has
ever entered into the calculation heretofore /;
we have thought only of how to get rid of
the dirt for the least money. The contract
has been for years the prey of Rings,
the strongest combination having had tho
privilege of fleeing the City through this
special means. We are told-though it
needed no such assurance to satisfy US
that another Ring is forming to get the new
contract. Everybody recognizes that the absurd
bids which we published yesterday were merely
so many blinds to make the bid of the new
Ring appear all the more reasonable We sup
pose that there is no preventing this rich
morsel from being snatched up by some sort
of combination unless the Police Board does
the work as suggested. But no matter by
whom done or under what authority and in
spectiOn, let us have the street cleaning for
once accomplished under sensible and scien-
tifc direction with regard to true economy of
money, matter, and of public health.
And the first step toward this end is one
that the Police Board, which has charge of
the matter, at least temporarily, is fully COM
petent, by reason of its authority, to make
entirely successful. 1t is to compel the sepa-
ration, by the hOuseholders and manufacturers,
of the garbage, which is valuable for various
purposes, and the ashes, which are practically
valueless, except for filling in" The present
system of mixing the two leads to inexcusable
extravaganza. Ii increases the cost of cOlec-
ton and removal at least thirty per cent; it
destroys totally the value of the garbage
itself, and impairs that of the ashes
by adding to it decaying substance
unfit for foundations for buildings. The
manure of the stables is now collected
by private firm, and some show of economy
in these vast deposits is made but the work is
done after the most primitive fashion, and
with such disregard of public health, that the
mass, when collected, is dumped in the heart
of the city, and allowed to rot, where the gases
ascending from it float above our heads
poisoning the atmosphere. No attempt what
ever has been made, even thus indifferently, to
collect the garbage, which is more valuable
even than the manure. 1t has been calculated
that there are at least $4,000 horses and 100000
houses in this city whose manure and garbage
are absolutely wasted. AT the current value
of raw manure ($2 load), the deposits OF
these animals amounting to 100000 loads
would be worth million
and half of dollars. The bone
alone of the garbage which could be collected