Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1886-04-30

The smaller bones. which can not be
used in the constructive arss, arc
equally valuable in agriculture. When
ground down to y fine powder and
mixed with sulphuric acid they
become that great fertilizer, superphos-
phate of lime, restoring to the soil all
the productive qualities that have been
taken out of it by over-cropping.
Wheat-growing is very exhaustive to
the soil; indeed. we could not go on
growing wheat for many years without
reducing it to sterility, were it not for
the use of this superphosphate. Phos-
phorus, again, is another %extractive
from bones.
Old iron finds its way into a 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
saucepans, 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 ind%estructible;
for all we know, the note-paper on
which we indite the tendercst love-let-
tiers to our beloved was made from an
old account-book of u 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-dress of a 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 a doll, or ven 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
VIC have said. like 50 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 a cause, we
may be sure, for this sudden flight. If
you ask the o%verlooker, he speedily en-
lightens you: 30, they've been and
found some money in the d~ustheap, and
when they do, it is a rule among them
to share it together in drink" BY and
by, their little jolliication 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 a perqui-
site, In this manner they obtain many
pieces of bread which the reader Nigh:
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 theirsi and when they
leave work, they may be seen laden
with fuel of this kind, which
them more expensive firing. The
broken china and crockery goes to
make the foundations Of roads and
paths; and all the 'ssoft 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 d~ustyard. Any
thing in the shape of cotton, even
to the covering of the c%rinoline steels
and stay-bones, is put aside for the
paper-mill. Cloth finds, it's way to the
shoddy-mills 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 n contribution of
twenty-five thousand ton of wool. Yet
these old clothes, not many years ago,
were considered of no more value than
to be thrown upon the manure-heap,
there slowly to suffer disintegration
until fit to be placed upon the land. In
o taken directly to the soil. Old
house and dish cloths soaked with
grease and animal refuse make capital
manure In the dust-contractors'
yards we may sec them spread upon
the ground to dry, preparatory to their
being forwarded to the ~hop-grounds,
where they are much used for the cult
walton of that plant. Old boots and
shoes, if not toe much d%ilapidated, find
their way to the back slums of the,
town, where a class of tradesmen live,
who patch them up, and, by the aid of.
heel-ball, make them once more pre-
sentable.
We had almost forgotten to say that
no inconsf3srable amoun of coal is
rescued from the dustheap. This, Of
course, does not go to the brickyard; it
is purchased by the poor. In well-to-
do neighborhoods, and ESPECIALLY inttlpe
fashionable quarter of the town.. tine
ashes are rarely sifted; hence, ~piecesof
coal half-burnt, or small Jumps, are
thrown away every morning. This,e X
travagance makes the ''dust' of the
better portions Of the town far val
liable than that collected froan the
poverty-stricken districts. Indeed, the
dust in the aristocratic portion of the
town is richer in every valuable refuse
there are more bones, more '%'breeze,"
more refuse clothing, than ever find q
chance Of getting into the boxes and
mjddens of the poor quarter,
We have said that the dust from the
roads is kept distinct from the dust OF
the ashpit. Roaddust is always very
rich in manure, which makes it valua
BILE as a top-dressing for meadows. I;
is also largely used to mix with sofl
clay for the making of inferior bricks,
and we have ascertained that it is also
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