St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1886-06-05

Il i
ground down to a fine powder an,
mixed with sulphuric acid they
become that great fertilizer. supcrphos.
phate of lime, restoring to the soil al
the productive qualities that have beer
taken out of it by over-cropping
Wheat-growing is very exhaustive tc
| the soil: indeed, we could not go or
growing wheat for many years without
reducing it to stcrility. were it not fol
the use of this superphosphatc. Phos.
phorus, again, is another extractive
from bones.
Old iron finds its way into very
spacious sieve. Like the glass. its sub.
stance is difficult to destroy; indeed,
some old iron is rendered much more
valuable by being knocked about.
Thus. old iron in the form of horse
shoes, and horseshoe nails. fetches a
much higher price than the original
metal from which they were made; the
toughness it acquires by constant
blows and conclusions gives it a great
lv enhanced value in the market. Old
timed articles. such as slop-pails and
saucepan>, are first heated. to recover
their tin and the solder with which they
are made. both of which articles are
more valuable than the old iron. Paper
is carefully collected. and goes once
again to the paper-mills. Like glass,
the original fibre is very indestructible;
for all we know. the note.papcr on
which we indite the tenderest love-let-
tiers to our beloved was made from an
old account-book of L tallow-chandler,
or from the musty records of the past
centuries. In turning over the rag
mans basket, what a singular history
we have! The ball-drcss of lady
drops into a rag-basket and reappears
as a billet-doux; disappears again to
reappear once more in the drawing
room or the nursery as a workbox OF
papier-mache. or doll, or even into
the wheels of railway trucks, and other
uses to which paper is now put.
Whilst, however, we are watching
the sifters grubbing over the heapS-as
We have said. like so many crows-they
all rise together. as we sometimes see
these birds do, without any apparent
cause, and make off to the nearest
public house. But there is cause. we
may be sure. for this sudden flight. II
you ask the overlooker, he speedily en-
lightens you: 20, they've been and
found some money in the dustheap. and
when they do, it is rule among them
to share it together in drink" BY and
by, their little jollitication over, they
return. If there is any thing that can
be used as food in the dust, the chill
women are entitled to it as perqui-
site, In this manner they obtain many
pieces of bread which the reader might
not like to eat, but which they either
do not object to, or put to other uses.
All the pieces of wood are also con-
sidered to be theirs: and when they
leave work, they may be seen laden
with fuel of this kind. which saves
them more expensive firing. The
broken china and crockery goes t.
make the foundations of roads and
paths: and all the "soft core namely.
refuse vegetable matter-is returned
directly to the fields in the shape of
manure. Old clothes are not the least
valuable items of the dustyard Any
thing in the shape of cotton. even
to the covering of the crinolinc steels
and stay-bones,- is put aside for the
Cloth finds its way to the
of Lancashire, where it
is purified and ground down and re-
made into coarse cloth. The old wool
en- garments that are turned thus into
shoddy are equal to Il contribution OF
twenty-five thousand tons of wool. Yet
these old clothes. not many years ago,
<,f h,v
to be thrown upon the manure-heap.
there slowly to suffer diSintegratiOn
until fit to be placed upon the land In
deed. there is class of rags which is
low taken directly to the soil. Old
house and dish cloths soaked with
crease and animal refuse make capital
manure. In the dust-contractors'
ards we may see them spread upon
he ground to dry, preparatory to their
,cing forwarded to the hop-grounds.
where they are much used for the culti-
-ation of that plant. Old boots and
hoes, if not too much dilapidated. find
heir way to the back slums of the
own, where class of tradesmen live
Who patch them up, and, by the aid OF
leel-ball, make them once more pre-
entable.
We had almost forgotten to say that
10 inconsiderable amount of coal is
rescued from the dustheap. This. of
curse, does not 20 to the brickvard: it
5 purchased by the poor In well-to-
10 neighborhoOds, and especially in the
quarter of the town. the
lshes are rarely sifted: hence. pieces of
oal half-burnt. or small Jumps. are
brown away every morning. This ex-
makes the dust of the
etter portions of the town far more val
able than that collected from the
districts. Indeed, the
uSt in the aristocratic portion of the
own is richer in every valuable refuse
here are more bones, more ''breeze."
more refuse clothing, than ever find a
hance of getting into the boxes and
niddens of the poor quarter. |
We have said that the dust from the |
Dads is kept distinct from the dust of
he ashpit. Roaddust is always very |
ich in manure, which makes it valua-
lie as top-dressing for meadows. 1t |
) also largely used to mix with soft
lay for the making of inferior bricks.
md We have ascertained that it is also
sed for more unsightly adulteration.
he composition with which many of
ne cheaply run-up houses are smoothcd
yer and made to appear ornamental.
; very freely mixed with road-dust.
he evil of this we speedily see in the
reen stains with which all such struc-
lres are disfigured, such green stains
eing nothing more than a vegetation