Humus from Habitation Wastes

THE disposal of the waste materials incident to the existence of mankind has always been one of the major problems of any large civilization. Primitive man, leading a nomadic existence, left his waste wherever he might be. As community living developed, the midden became more and more a necessary part of living conditions, and when towns grew the disposal of waste products began to assume the proportions of a real difficulty. The value of animal and human excreta for the improvement of the soil and for plant growth was discovered by many races; the possibility of returning decomposed garbage to the soil similarly seems to have been thought of at many times in history; the combination of the two appears, however, only to have been practised in early times by the Chinese.