Vidanges et fertilisants. Le cas de la poudrette parisienne au milieu du dix-neuvième siècle

Abstract

According to urban and environmental historians, the second half of the nineteenth century witnessed a break in the cycle of exchange between town and country. Far from closing the virtuous circle of exchange of matter - food and raw materials in exchange for fertiliser - evoked by authors such as Chadwick and Leibig, towns became completely predatory on their surrounding areas. One of the most important aspects of this concerns the use of urban waste. As early as 1975, in one of the first works on this topic, Joel Tarr, discussed the use of urban waste by farmers in preindustrial North American agriculture. Since then, many historians have debated the extent of these transfers. One of the most fruitful fields of research explored by urban and environmental historians in this context is the history of sewage farms and the use of urban waste in agriculture. But, as Tarr noted in his article: “The lack of specific sources makes it difficult to establish how widely urban wastes were put to agricultural use b...