AGRICULTURE.
In the interior of China, travellers relate that copper receptacles along the roadsides rescue from loss a fertilizer whose value is fully recognized.
These copper receptacles recall the “Gastra,” of the Romans, already referred to under the heading of “Latrines.”
“Les Chinois fument leurs terres autant que cela est en leur pouvoir; ils emploient à cet usage toutes sortes d’engrais, mais principalement les excréments humains, qu’ils recueillent à cet effet avec grand soin. On trouve dans les villes, dans les villages, et sur les routes, des endroits faits exprès pour la commodité des passans, et dans les lieux où il n’y a pas de semblables facilités, des hommes vont ramasser soir et matin les ordures et les mettent dans des panniers à l’aide d’un croc de fer à trois pointes.
“On traffique dans ce pays de ce qu’on rejette ailleurs avec horreur et celui qui reçoit d’argent en France pour nettoyer une fosse, en donne au contraire en Chine pour avoir la liberté d’en faire autant. Les excréments sont portés dans de grands trous bien mastiqués, faits en pleine campagne, dans lesquels on les délaye avec de l’eau et de l’urine et on les répand dans les champs à mesure qu’on a besoin. On rencontre souvent sur la rivière à Quanton des bateaux d’une forme particulière destinés au transport de ces ordures et ce n’est pas sans surprise qu’on en voit les conducteurs être aussi peu affectés qu’ils le paroissent de l’odeur agréable d’une pareille marchandise.”—(“Voyage à Pekin,” De Guignes, Paris, 1808, vol. iii. p. 322.)
“The dung of all animals is esteemed above any other kind of manure. It often becomes an article of commerce in the shape of small cakes, which are made by mixing it with a portion of loam and earth, and then thoroughly drying them. These cakes are even brought from Siam, and they also form an article of commerce between the provinces. They are never applied dry, but are diluted with as much animal water as can be procured.”—(“Chinese Repository,” Canton, 1835, vol. iii. p. 124.)
“They even make sale of that which is sent privately to some distance in Europe at midnight.” (Du Halde, “History of China,” London, 1736, vol. ii. p. 126.) This statement of Father Du Halde can be compared with what Bernal Diaz says of the markets of the city of Mexico at the time of Cortés: “There are in every province a great number of people who carry pails for this purpose; in some places they go with their barks into the canals which run on the back side of the houses, and fill them at almost every hour of the day.”—(Du Halde, idem, p. 126.)
Rosinus Lentilius, in “Ephemeridum Physico-Medicorum,” Leipsig, 1694, states that the people of China and Java buy human ordure in exchange for tobacco and nuts. This was probably on account of its value in manuring their fields, which, he tells us (p. 170), was done three times a year with human ordure. This leads him to make the reflection that man runs back to excrement,—“Unde stercus in alimentum et hoc rursum in stercus.”
“The Japanese manure their fields with human ordure.”—(See Kemper’s “History of Japan,” in Pinkerton, vol. vii. p. 698.)
“Yea, the dung of men is there sold, and not the worse merchandise, that stink yielding sweet wealth to some who goe tabouring up and down the streetes to signifie what they woulde buy. Two or three hundred sayle are sometimes freighted with this lading in some Port of the Sea; whence the fatted soyle yields three Haruests in a yeare.”—(Mendex Pinto, “Account of China,” in Purchas, vol. i. p. 270.)
“Heaps of manure in every field, at proper distances, ready to be scattered over the corn.”—(Turner, “Embassy to Tibet,” London, 1806, p. 62.)
The Persians used pigeon’s dung “to smoak their melons.”—(John Matthews Eaton, “Treatise on Breeding Pigeons,” London, no date, pp. 39, 40, quoting from Tavernier’s first volume of “Persian Travels.”)
The finest variety of melon, “the sugar melon,” “cultivated with the greatest care with the dung of pigeons kept for the purpose.”—(“Persia,” Benjamin, London, 1877, p. 428.)
Fosbroke cites Tavernier as saying that the King of Persia draws a greater revenue from “the dung than from the pigeons” belonging to him in Ispahan. The Persians are said to live on melons during the summer months, and “to use pigeons’ dung in raising them.”—(“Cyclopædia of Antiquities,” vol. ii.)
Human manure was best for fields, according to Pliny (Nat. Hist. lib. 17, cap. 9). Homer relates that King Laertes laid dung upon his fields. Augeas was the first king among the Greeks so to use it, and “Hercules divulged the practice thereof among the Italians.”—(Pliny, idem, Holland’s translation.)
Urine was considered one of the best manures for vines. “Wounds and incisions of trees are treated also with pigeon’s dung and swine manure.... If pomegranates are acid, the roots of the tree are cleared, and swine’s dung is applied to them; the result is that in the first year the fruit will have a vinous flavor, but in the succeeding one it will be sweet.... The pomegranates should be watered four times a year with a mixture of human urine and water.... For the purpose of preventing animals from doing mischief by browsing upon the leaves, they should be sprinkled with cow-dung each time after rain.”—(Pliny, lib. 17, cap. 47.)
Schurig calls attention to the great value attached by farmers and viticulturists to human ordure, either alone or mixed with that of animals, in feeding hogs, in fertilizing fields, and in adding richness to the soil in which vines grow. See “Chylologia,” p. 795.
In Germany and France, during the past century, farmers and gardeners were generally careful of this fertilizer.
“In the valley of Cuzco, Peru, and, indeed, in almost all parts of the Sierra, they used human manure for the maize crops, because they said it was the best.”—(Garcillasso de la Vega, “Comentarios Reales,” Clement C. Markham’s translation, in Hakluyt Society, vol. xlv. p. 11.)
“Conocian tambien el uso de estercolar las tierras que ellos llamaban Vunaltu.”—(“Historia Civil del Reyno de Chile,” Don Juan Ignacio Molina, edition of Madrid, 1788, p. 15.)
Amelie Rives, in her story “Virginia of Virginia,” relates that a certain family of Virginia was taken down with the typhoid fever on account of “making fertilizer in the cellar.” We may infer that this “fertilizer” was largely composed of manure. This is the interview between Mr. Scott and Miss Virginia Herrick: “‘The tarryfied fever’s a-ragin’ up ter Annesville,’ he announced presently. Virginia faced about for the first time. ‘Is it?’ she asked; ‘who’s down?’ ‘Nigh all of them Davises. The doctor says as how it’s ’count o’ their makin’ fertilizer in their cellar.’”—(In “Harper’s Magazine,” New York, January, 1888, p. 223.)
Animal manure was known as a fertilizer to the Jews (2 Kings ix. 37; Jeremiah viii. 2, ix. 22, xvi. 4, and xxv. 33). Human manure also. (Consult McClintock and Strong’s Encyclopædia, article “Dung.”)