06/16/2025
New Yorkers once lived in horse manure
The horse manure problem in 1894 Each horse produced 15 to 30 pounds of manure per day, which, multiplied by the more than 150,000 horses in New York City, resulted in 3 million pounds of manure that needed to be disposed of every day. That didnāt include the 40,000 gallons of horse urine per day.
As Morris put it, āthe stench was everywhere.ā Here are some anecdotes from his article:
City streets were like minefields, requiring extreme caution and caution to navigate. āSweepersā stood on street corners and, for a fee, cleared the muddy roads for pedestrians. Wet weather turned the streets into muddy swamps and rivers, but dry weather brought no improvement; manure turned to dust that was blown by the wind, choking pedestrians and covering buildings.
ā¦Even when manure was removed from the streets, it accumulated faster than it could be removed ā¦At the beginning of the century, farmers were happy to pay high prices for manure, but by the end of the 19th century, stable owners had to pay for manure to be hauled away. Due to the excess of manureā¦vacant lots in cities across the United States were filled with manure; in New York, piles sometimes reached 40 or even 60 feet high.
We need to remind ourselves that horse manure is an ideal breeding ground for flies, which spread disease. Morris reports outbreaks of deadly typhoid fever and āinfant diarrheaā were both linked to surges in fly populations.
Comparing the number of fatalities from horse-related accidents in Chicago in 1916 with automobile accidents in 1997, he concludes that in the good old days, the death toll was nearly seven times what it is today. The reason is simple:
ā¦the engine of a horse-drawn carriage was a ābrainā in itself. The timidity of horses added a dangerous unpredictability to nineteenth-century transportation. This was especially true in bustling urban environments, which were rife with accidents that could scare and alarm horses. Stampedes were common, but the more common danger came from horses kicking, biting, or trampling bystanders. Children were particularly at risk.
Falls, injuries, and abuse also took their toll on the horses themselves. Morris cites data showing that in 1880, more than 30 dead horses were cleared from the streets of New York City every day (nearly 15,000 per year).
