poudrette

Noun

poudrette (countable and uncountable, plural poudrettes)

1. (archaic) A solid powdered agricultural manure prepared by composting human feces (night soil from outhouses and dry closets) by mixing it with various other ingredients (e.g., ground gypsum, lime, ashes) and then aging and drying the result.
   • Mr. Edward Condict, of Morristown, New Jersey, under date July 25th, 1842, says:—
     SIR,—In reply to your circular of the 20th inst., asking information relative to the effects of poudrette on crops during the years 1841 and 1842, I would state, that in the year 1841, I planted a field of corn, on...1843 April 15, Edward Condict, quotee, “Poudrette as a Manure”, in The Farmers' Cabinet, and American Herd-Book, Devoted to Agriculture, Horticulture, and Rural and Domestic Affairs, volume 7, number...
   • The City Bureau of Health reports about sixty poudrette pits within the city limits, of which number approximately fifty are in South Philadelphia, the others being widely scattered over the north and northwestern sections of the city. Some farms have one pit, others two and three, while still...1915, Eighth Annual Report of the Commissioner of Health for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, 1913, Part II, William Stanley Ray, State Printer, page 1253