Dear everyone enjoying their New years' dinners and Christmas
leftovers,

Dan W wrote [optimistically] "I have a feeling they were smart enough
not to spread the "honey" on their veggie garden and there were plenty
of other crops that were not consumed by humans or immediately by
livestock."

There is excellent  support for systematic purchasing of the untreated
contents of cesspits and privies by the market gardeners of Sydney in
the 1870s.  A Commission examining Sydney's sanitation and water supply
needs documented that the cartel of night soil contractors in the city
sold the material to the market gardeners on the suburban fringes, who
used it untreated.  The city health inspector noted that it was usually
full of old shoes, tins and bottles, although he neglected to be excited
about its archaeological potential.  He got far more worked up about the
prospect of it contributing to the food cycle.

In Sydney's case the market gardens were generally located on low lying
sandy soils of limited fertility and structure, so  manure from whatever
source was needed.  The most common other source of manure was street
sweepings from carriage and draught horses, but that is not a
particularly good growing medium for vegetables.  Cow manure would be
preferred but would have been extrememly expensive to collect when on
the open range.   Survey of these gardens shows the usual range of 19th
to mid 20th century artefacts in high density across the garden beds.
The known ethnicity of the occupants in this time range included
Germans, Cornish, Irish and Chinese, all of whom seem to have used the
stuff.

Now, back to the frittata.

Denis Gojak




** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** **
Denis Gojak
Heritage Asset Manager
planningNSW
2-10 Wentworth Street
Parramatta NSW 2150
PO Box 404 Parramatta 2124
Ph:    +61 2 9895 7940
Fax:   +61 2 9895 7946
Email: [log in to unmask]

>>> [log in to unmask] 01/02 10:34 am >>>
Jim Bowles wrote:
>All these privy practices that've been posted have not mentioned
Bacillary
>dysentery .. spread by fecal contamination of food and water .. common
where
>sanitation is poor.


Nobody said they survived 100% or that they knew what they were doing
when
they placed the privies.  I have a feeling they were smart enough not
to
spread the "honey" on their veggie garden and there were plenty of
other
crops that were not consumed by humans or immediately by livestock.

The 18th and 19th century farmers and builders sure knew what
dysentery
was, the death certificates and news accounts attest to that, but did
they
know its source?  They eventually figured it out to be water-borne, but
the
dysentery bacillus was not even identified until the 1890s.

Heck it was only in the 1870s when someone first suggested that
doctors
should wash their hands between patients.  Microbes was the word
before
that and they had no clue how to control them.

        Dan W.