prevent the access of diptera, or burying it immediately beneath the surface of well-tilled soil with a view to the production of crops. We pity the horse 'turned out' in a paddock when we see it tormented with 'flies.' Few of us pause to think that if the horsedung had been collected daily and put to more profitable use instead of being allowed to lie about and generate a plague of flies the animal might have been happier and the dung might have been more valuable for fertilising purposes. When flies breed in dung-heaps the larvæ eat the dung and leave the straw. If each fly needs one grain only of sustenance then the 25,000,000 which I have stated as the possible season's progeny of a female house-fly will be capable of robbing a farmer of 25,000,000 grains of fertilising material, which at 7,000 grains to the pound works out at 3,571 pounds, or considerably more than one and a half tons. It is bad economy to have your scavenging done by flies and sad to see your potential wealth make to itself wings and fly away. In my garden at Andover where human excreta have undergone daily superficial burial for about eighteen years there is no excess of flies, and I have come to the conclusion that an essential part of garden management is the daily collection of all garden offal, such as dead leaves, fallen and rotten fruit, &c., and either superficially burying or stacking it so that it shall not serve as a breeding-ground for insects which often prey upon the plums and peaches in the autumn.

In the management of refuse I am no advocate for the use of chemical disinfectants. These are expensive, generally evil-smelling, often poisonous, and lead to an increase of material to be transported. The soil is quite capable, with proper management, of turning all organic refuse into soil'—a fact which the experiments of Sir

Seymour Haden and myself have abundantly proved. Our experiments have also shown that from the point of view of the innocuous transformation of organic refuse into 'soil' deep burial is a mistake. This is true alike of dead animals and of excreta. We are happily hearing less of the pollution of the earth and of the growth of microbes and toxins in the soil, and even from the laboratories of bacteriologists we are learning that the soil is our best friend. The use of quicklime in the treatment of excreta is, I believe, quite unnecessary. My experiments in burying small animals tend to show that the quicklime preserves the body and mischievously prevents the beneficent action of the soil. In the management of refuse, there must be no slovenly dumping.' What is wanted is proper sorting at the time of collection, great attention to detail, absolute neatness, and an appreciation of the ends to be attained.

In recommending the immediate collection of all organic refuse and its instant covering with earth, I am making no new recommendation. Moses had had experience of a plague of flies' in Africa and was no novice in the matter of camp-management. He found it necessary to be most explicit in his directions for the treatment of excreta. These directions are given in Deuteronomy xxiii. 12-14, and I find that in the Revised Version of the English Bible there is an interesting change in the passage. The old version runs thus:

'Thou shalt have a place also without the camp, whither thou shalt go forth abroad:

' And thou shalt have a paddle upon thy weapon; and it shall be, when thou wilt ease thyself [sittest down] abroad, thou shalt dig therewith, and shalt turn back and cover that which cometh from thee:

For the Lord thy God walketh in the midst of thy

camp, to deliver thee, and to give up thine enemies before thee; therefore shall thy camp be holy that he see no unclean thing in thee [nakedness of anything], and turn away from thee.'

The new version says (verse 13): Thou shalt have a paddle among thy weapons,' and as a variant for paddle gives shovel' in the margin. The passage, therefore, means that a shovel for burying excreta immediately is a necessary implement in every camp.

CHAPTER II

AN EXPERIMENT IN SANITATION-COLLECTION OF RAIN-WATER-DISPOSAL OF SLOP-WATER'

THIS cottage is represented (see fig. 1) not because of any architectural beauty, but because it presents points of interest. It forms the lodge of Gallagher's Copse, which is a mile from Andover Junction, just outside the borough boundary. The borough having recently adopted the Model By-laws of the Local Government Board, it became necessary to trek over the border in order to escape from possible hindrances and prohibitions-an important matter, because the owner is, in the matter of house-building, an experimentalist. The soil is chalk. The foundations were laid out by the aid of a compass, in order to ensure that one angle of the cottage should point due north. This arrangement ensures that there is a possibility of some sunshine upon every wall of the house at every season of the year. The accommodation consists (see fig. 2) of a living-room (L), three bedrooms (B, B, B), scullery and wash-house (s), glazed verandah (v, v), earth closet (c), wood-house (w), and rain-water tank (T).

In the house it will be noticed that there is a door front and back, so that the passage can be swept by a thorough draught; that no room communicates directly

1 Reprinted from Country Life of July 6, 1901.

with any other room; and that every room has a fireplace, which, from the point of view of ventilation, is most important. No fireplace is placed against an outside wall. The chimneys do not get chilled, and 'draw admirably.

This cottage contains what ought to be the minimum accommodation, viz. a living-room, and a bedroom each for parents, boys, and girls. The scullery and washhouse is so placed that, although it can be reached under cover, the smell of cooking and the steam of washing need not invade the dwelling-house. The earth closet is well removed from the rooms, but, nevertheless, can be reached under cover, via verandah and wash-house. The walls are built of mud,' with rough-cast on the outside. Mud (i.e. chalk puddled up with a certain proportion of straw), flints, and timber are the only building materials found in the district. Most of the clay-pits in the immediate vicinity have been long worked out, and there is no stone. Mud is a non-conductor of heat, and is consequently a very warm material. It is said in the district that frozen water-pipes are very uncommon in mud houses. It is very lasting, provided it be kept dry. Mud walling should be begun in March, and should not be carried on after the beginning of September. It is not advisable to hurry your operations. Foundations are necessary for mud walls, and these should be of flint, concrete, brick, or stone. The mud is 15 inches thick, and with rough-cast on the outside and a lining of match-boarding the thickness of the walls is about 17 inches, and the fireplaces being all in the centre and every side exposed to the sun, it is needless to say that the cottage has proved a very snug winter residence. The floors are of concrete, finished in granite cement, and the skirtings are of the same material.