Some cities have made very stringent regulations for the care, collection and disposal of stable manure within their limits; others are not so exacting and many have not as yet given any thought to the subject, or if they have no municipal laws have been enacted. The importance of municipal regulation is recognized by all sanitarians, and especially since the house fly has been regarded as one of the chief spreaders of disease. If for no other reason than to eliminate the greatest breeding place of the fly, stable manure should be properly cared for, and stables and other places where animals are kept in cities should be clean.
The regulations of most cities require the individual to dispose of the manure on the premises he owns or occupies. Only a few cities have a municipal collection system or have the work done under contract. In those cities where gardeners and farmers are permitted to collect the waste voluntarily no trouble has been experienced during the winter months when the farmer is not busy on the soil, but during the spring and summer, when the need of cleanliness is greatest, but when the farmer is too busy planting and harvesting, the collection is neglected. Minneapolis is one of the cities which have suffered in this way. In several cities one or more companies deal in manure, maintaining wagons exclusively for collection purposes. The manure is carted either to the railroad direct for shipment or to persons purchasing it. In most instances these companies pay a small amount for the manure. The stable manure in Washington is collected and disposed of in this manner. Toronto, Canada, contracts with four different companies to remove the manure. These make a nominal charge for the collection, the city being under no expense. In Jersey City the waste is carted away by private contractors and most of it is sold to farmers. Denver transfers its stable manure to the city dump where it is hid during the summer months and in the spring is sold to gardeners. The city sanitary inspector does not regard this plan as satisfactory.
There seems to be an unanimity of opinion among most municipal sanitarians that the city itself should be prepared to remove manure when owners or occupants fail or refuse to do so. Every owner should be allowed to sell it if he can; otherwise, it should be regarded as a nuisance, and the city should remove it without compensating the owner, but charging him for the service. Unquestionably as cities continue to grow and as congestion becomes greater such a plan will be adopted by most municipalities.
One of the best systems in operation is that in Columbus, Ohio, where manure is collected by municipal employees from any stable within the city limits. The Columbus ordinance provides that any person desiring to have the manure removed must take out a permit for such service at a yearly charge of $3 for one horse, $5 for two horses and $1 for each additional horse. After the ordinance became a law the Department of Public Safety began to notify the public that from and after April 1, 1912, no manure would be removed without the payment of a fee.
Between September 1 and June 1 the demand for manure is greatly in excess of the supply and the city could sell three or four times as much as it collects. During the remainder of the year there is practically no demand for the waste as farmers cannot handle it.
The collection is made under the following rules: Whenever a person pays to the city treasury the ordinance charge for manure collection the Department of Public Service is notified on a blank form. The name, address, permit number, and number of horses are recorded in alphabetical order. To each of the four drivers employed in collection is given a separate list of barns from which to collect, and each evening he reports the places from which he made collection during the day.
Following is a detailed statement of the cost of collection and the receipts from the sale of manure for 1916 when prices were normal:
| Total number of loads hauled | 1486 |
| Total number of tons collected | 2972 |
| Expenses | |
|---|---|
| Teams and labor | $2,689.25 |
| Superintendent, inspection, etc. | 200.21 |
| Repairs, etc. | 546.49 |
| Receipts | |
| Sale of manure | $2,029.50 |
| Receipts from citizens for collection | 672.00 |
| Cash on hand | 15.00 |
| Open account on books for year | 148.00 |
| Net cost | 739.90 |
| Cost of collection per load | 2.31 |
| Cost of collection per load less receipts | .49 |
| Cost of collection per ton less receipts | .24½ |
The Civil Engineer of the Columbus Health Department says that a market has been found for the entire output of the city, the prevailing price being $2 a wagon load delivered anywhere inside the city limits, and for shipment $15 per average car f. o. b. cars, city loading station. He further says that about 15 per cent. of the manure produced in Columbus, a city of 200,000 inhabitants, is collected. “It seems,” he says, “perfectly possible to collect all manure produced in the city at a very low cost to the municipality, for during the year 1913 only three 2-ton wagons were used in manure collection and they proved to be sufficient to handle the work with ease.”
In Chicago manure must be removed every seventy-two hours and collected by licensed scavengers at the expense of the stable owner. Only during the last two or three years was specific authority over stables granted to the Health Department, which immediately began an inspection of all stables. Of the first 500 inspected it was found that from a sanitary standpoint they were in very poor condition.