Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1917-09-01
PIGCERY FED ON WASTE
FAVORABLY RECEIVED
[Continued from First Page.l

CONTINUED from First Page.l
experience, is now turning garbage
into a valuable food product and at
the same time just about paying the
| cost of garbage collection.
The city is one of the old and we'll
| established ones in New England,
| with a population of about $4,000. 1t
is an industrial city with many diver
sified industries, but with no unusual
characteristics. Its foreign popula-
ton. according to the 1910 census, is
only 33.5 per cent.
Started in Small Way
The description of the Worcester
system follows, in part:
"In 1872 the superintendent of the
municipal poor farm began sending a
wagon into the city now and then to
collect enough garbage to feed the
pigs. The work developed with the
growth of the city until to-day about
seventy per cent. of the garbage of
Worcester (twenty to thirty tons
day. Is taken to the home farm and
fed to 1000 to 5000 pigs. The garbage
disposal has developed and continued
along this line for longer time than
has usually been the case in American
municipalities. There has been q
striking absence of unwise and unsuc-
cessful experiment.
"The home farm consists OF about
376 acres owfied by the city. In addi-
ton, the city leases a farm of 22O
acres at a rental of $1,000 a year.
The farm is located in the northeast
ern part of the city. To get to 1t the
garbage teams from the center of the
city have to pass over ridge about
140 feet high.
Divide City Into Districts
"The city is divided into twenty-one
districts, from which the garbage is
collected twice a week without charge
to the householders or businessmen.
There is also a special collection for
the fish offal and rotten eggs from
| markets and commission houses,
which collection is made daily in spe-
| oial cans with tight-fitting covers.
These cans are provided by the deal
ers. Since this material is not fed
| to swine but is buried. no revenue
| is derived from it and it is a direct
tax on the scavenger department of
| $1,760 per year."
Private collectors are allowed to
operate, but the arrangement between
them and the city is not entirely sat
isfactory, it is said. For city col
lectors one load is considered a days
work and the average haul is thirteen
miles. The average time for collec-
ton from one house is 1.65 minutes,
maximum 80 and minimum A minute.
Special regulations strictly enforced
require householders to provide wa
tertight receptacles, covered at all
times, and no person is allowed to de-
posit water. dishwater not excepted,
ashes, glass, sweepings oyster or clam
shells, sawdust, corkdust,. old boots
or shoes, dead animals, etc.
Take Every PrecnutiOn
Sanitary piggeries are maintained
with one man in charge or the entire
herd. The hogs are inoculated against
cholera. Other precautions are taken
to guard against hoof and mouth dis
ease and to keep the pens in the best
possible condition.
These are cleaned daily and the
cleanings taken to a compost heap
which is inclosed by concrete walls.
| After an experiment a system was
found to prevent any Objectionable
| odor from the heap and at the same
time obtain a good fertilizer. After
n certain time some of the hogs are
turned outdoors and improve the farm
| in cleaning off the scrub from waste
lard and improving II. Two care
takers are provided for each piggery
| and each caretaker can handle about
ESQ to 800 pigs day.
In tables given in the account by
Professor Bonnet, 1t is shown that the
actual cost of collection and disposal
for one year is $60.435 and the income
from the sale of swine about 100000
| Among experts quoted as favoring
| the system are DIR. Charles " Cha
pin, health officer of Providence,
r. l.; DR.. Edward Cahill, of the Mas
sachusetts Bureau of Animal Indus
tly; Robert Spur Weston. Boston,
who has had to deal with tte garbage
disposal of large sanitorium.
Collection and Disposal
In the September issue of Municipal
Engineers, an account on Refuse Col
lection and Disposal is given in
which specialists of the Department
of Agriculture of the Federal govern
ment express the hope that as the
thrift idea gains ground and less fat
is thrown into the garbage that the
recovery of profits by reduction will
hardly be worth while. This viii
mean that a lot of excellent and val
liable foodstuffs now being wasted as
food will never get into the garbage
pail. Even when all fat is eliminated,
however, and the waste of bread and
cereals and meat has been reduced
to a minimum, the garbage pail new
ertheless will contain in the form of
parings, plate scraps and trimmings
a vast amount of material which must
be disposed of by incineratiop, burial
or feeding to domestic animals" the
specialists believe.
1t is also suggested that the city
food chemist analyze the city garbage
from week to week and publish what
ne finds as an index of food saving
and waste in the community. One of
the first results from this careful
i analysis 1t is said should be the pas
/ sage of more rigid enforcement OF
garbage collection ordinances. requir-
ing that no glass, tin, wood, burnt
matches. paper, string or inorganic
trash be mixed with the vegetable ma
terial, meat scraps and bones which
can be used for feed.
In connection with the account
there is given a report showing that
the cost of hauling garbage in San
Antonio, Texas. was recently reduced
nifty per cent. by the use OF automo-