This indeed is good Advice for Gardeners, for making their Stuff more palatable and wholesome; but would ruin the Farmer who could have no more Dung than what he could make upon his Arable Farm. For every Sort of Dung, the longer Time it ferments without the Ground, the lesser Time it has to ferment in it, and the weaker its Ferment will be. The Reason given for this great Diminution of Dung is, that the Seeds of Weeds may be rotted, and lose their vegetating Faculty; but this I am certain of by Demonstration, that let a Dunghil remain Three Years unmov’d, though its Bulk be vastly diminish’d in that Time, and its best Quality lost, Charlock-seed will remain found in it, and stock the Land whereon it is laid: For that Ferment which is sufficient to consume the Virtue of the stercoreous Salts, is not sufficient to destroy the vegative Virtue of Charlock-seeds, nor (I believe) of many other Sorts of Weeds. The very Effluvia of animal Bodies, sent off by Perspiration, are so noxious as to kill the Animal that emits them, if confin’d to receive them back in great Quantity, by breathing in an Air replete with them; which appears from the soon dying of an Animal shut up in a Receiver full of Air. Yet this seems to be the most harmless of all sorts of animal Excrements the Air can be infected with. How noxious then must be the more fetid Steams of Ordure! If a Catalogue were publish’d of all Instances from Charnel-houses (or Cœmeteries) and of the pestiferous Effects, which have happen’d from the Putrefaction of dead Bodies, after great Battles, even in the open Air, no body, I believe, would have a good Opinion of the Wholsomeness of Animal Dung; for if a great Quantity do so infect the Air, ’tis likely a less may infect it in proportion to that less Quantity. In great Cities the Air is full of these Effluvia, which in hot Climes often produce the Pestilence; and in cold Climes People are generally observ’d to live a less time, and less healthfully, in Cities, than in the Country; to which Difference, ’tis likely, that the eating unwholsome Gardenage may contribute. This Dung is a fitter Food for venomous Creatures[19] than for edible Plants; and ’tis (no doubt) upon Account of this, that dung’d Gardens are so much frequented by Toads, which are seldom or never seen in the open undung’d Fields. [19] Mr. _Evelyn_ says, that Dung is the Nurse of Vermin. What can we say then to the Salubrity of those Roots themselves, bred up and fatten’d among these Toads and Corruption? The Leaves indeed are only discharging some of the Filth, when we eat them; but the Roots have that unsavoury infected Food in their very Mouths, when we take them for our Nourishment. But tho’ _Dung_ be, upon these and other Accounts, injurious to the Garden, yet a considerable Quantity of it is so necessary to most Corn-fields, that without it little Good can be done by the old Husbandry.