Gritted my teeth and held my knees firmly together for most of this
thread but eventually...(hey - I've thrown in a couple of on-topic
posts today so I've earned the right.) Now leaving aside my design
for a horse-manure powered hothouse, there has been some recent
research in Oz on this.
A group were concerned about the usual turd disposal technique used
by bushwalkers in wilderness areas - dig a hole, use it and bury it.
They did a long term study of buried human excrement in the low
fertility, phosphate poor Australian soils where such contamination
can kill locally adapted species and encourage weed growth.
Apparently, after a year there was very little degradation in some
soils and locations. Their advice was to accelerate the process by
urinating in the hole as well - speeds things up significantly.
FAQ
1. No, they did not use OM equipment to record the decay rates.
2. Yes, it is useful research.
3. No, it is not the most unpleasant research project I have read -
that goes to the guy who spend his days in Antarctica making penguins
vomit in a bucket (soft words and a rubber hose) and his nights
examining and logging the contents of the bucket.
AndrewF
(Medieval English advice - the urine of two men is sufficient to
fertilise enough parsnips for a family's yearly needs).
>It is common practice in many parts of the world to use "night soil" to
>fertilise crops. It does not take much for the earth to break down
>normal bacteria as I understand it, and the practice was common in
>Great Britain for a long time. The Germans use it every year on their
>crops.
>
>You can make use of the gas that is generated by a toilet of this sort
>as well ...
>
>My brother lived and worked at the Centre for Alternative Technology
>for some years (http://www.cat.org.uk/) where they practise all manner
>of measures for green living, including methane toilets in all the
>buildings and dwellings. My current contribution is to use solar
>heating for water and to pee on the compost heaps every now and then -
>when the neighbours are not looking ;-)
>
>Chris
>
>On 13 Feb 2004, at 05:00, Gregg Iverson wrote:
>
>>
>> I remember some advice as a kid. Move the outhouse every year and
>> plant a
>> fruit tree where it was. It worked well for my great grandfather, but
>> somehow I don't think I would enjoy eating the fruit quite as much if I
>> knew ----.
>>
>> gregg
>>
><|_:-)_|>
>
>C M I Barker
>Cambridgeshire, Great Britain.
>
>+44 (0)7092 251126
>ftog at threeshoes.co.uk
>http://www.threeshoes.co.uk
>http://homepage.mac.com/zuiko
>... a nascent photo library.
>
>
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