When clay banks are available, an oven may be excavated therein and used at once.
To bake in such ovens, first heat them and then close flues and ends.
[671.] Food must be protected from flies, dust, and sun. Facilities must be provided for cleaning and scalding the mess equipment of the men. Kitchens and the ground around them must be kept scrupulously clean.
[672.] Solid refuse should be promptly burned, either in the kitchen fire or in an improvised crematory.
[673.] In temporary camps, if the soil is porous, liquid refuse from the kitchens may be strained through gunny sacking into seepage pits dug near the kitchen. Flies must not have access to these pits. Boards or poles, covered with brush or grass and a layer of earth may be used for this purpose. The strainers should also be protected from flies. Pits of this kind, dug in clayey soil, will not operate successfully. All pits should be filled with earth before marching.
Disposal of Excreta.
[674.] Immediately on arriving in camp sinks should be dug. This is a matter of fundamental sanitary importance, since the most serious epidemics of camp diseases are spread from human excreta.
One sink is usually provided for each company and one for the officers of each battalion. Those for the men are invariably located on the side of camp opposite the kitchens. All sinks should be so placed that they can not pollute the water supply or camp site as a result of drainage or overflow. To insure this, their location and their distance from camp may be varied.
When camp is made for a single night, shallow trenches, 12 inches deep and 15 to 18 inches wide, which the men may straddle, will suffice.
In more permanent camps, the trenches should be about 2 feet wide, 6 feet deep, and 15 feet long. They should be provided with seats and back rests made of poles, and should be screened by brush or old tent flys.