fficulties, such as flushing with water, and, if neglected, it
engenders sewer-gas, which is more dangerous than the sewage itself.
The plan to be pursued depends entirely upon the circumstances of
the place and the configuration of the ground. The subject of
drainage connects itself with that of nuisances. This is, perhaps,
the most difficult matter with which a local authority would have to
deal. Nuisances are comparative. One man may not consider that to be
a nuisance which may be an intolerable annoyance to his neighbour.
The keeping of pigs, for instance, is a troublesome affair. The
cottager cannot be requested to give up so reasonable a habit; but
there can be no doubt that the presence of a number of pigs in a
village, in their dirty sties, and with their accompanying heaps of
decaying garbage, is very offensive, and perhaps unhealthy. The pig
itself, though commonly called a dirty animal, is not anything near
so bad as has been represented. To convince oneself of that it is
only necessary to visit farm-buildings which are well looked after.
The pigsties have no more smell than the stables, because the manure
is removed, and no garbage is allowed to accumulate. It is the man
who keeps the pig that makes it filthy and repulsive, and not the
animal itself. Regular and _clean_ food has also much to do with it,
such as barley-meal. Cottagers cannot afford barley-meal, but they
certainly could keep their sties much cleaner. It does not seem
possible to attack the nuisance with any other means than that of
persuasion, unless some plan could be devised of keeping pigs in a
common building outside the village; or at any rate, of having the
manure taken outside at short intervals. Such nuisances as stagnant
ponds and mud-filled ditches are more easily dealt with, because
they are public, and interference with them would not touch upon any
man's liberty of action. Stagnant ponds are of no use to
anyone--even horses will not drink at them. The simple plan is to
remove the mud, and then fill them up level with the ground, laying
in drain-pipes to carry off the water which accumulated there. But
some of these ponds could be utilized for the benefit of passing
horses and cattle. They are fed with a running stream, but, being no
man's property, the pond becomes choked with mud and manure, and the
small inflow of pure water is not enough to overcome the noisome
exhalations. These should be cleaned out now and then, and, if
poss