The Great Horse Manure Crisis of the Late 1800s

Ин Terri Estes

In the late 19th century, New York City depended on thousands of horses for the city’s daily functioning. All transportation, whether of goods or people, was drawn by horses.

As industries grew and thousands of people moved from farms into cities, horses moved with them. Hard working horse teams were the lifeblood of the city. They kept stores stocked with food and other supplies and carried people to and from their jobs.

In 1870, there were at least 150,000 horses in New York City. Each of those horses made, on average, 22 lbs. of manure a day. So, you can imagine, with over three million pounds of manure being dropped in the roads everyday (not to mention 40,000 gallons of urine) the stench in the streets became unbearable. When it rained, the streets turned to muck, and when it was dry, the manure would turn to an unhealthy dust that coated everything.

For a time, the manure was welcomed by local farmers who used it as fertilizer. But eventually the cost of picking it up and transporting it became too much and giant smelly piles built up in empty lots all over the city — some of them over 60 feet tall. They became a breeding ground for billions of flies. These flies, in turn spread diseases which elevated the problem from a nuisance to a health crisis. This problem was not New York City’s alone. Every major city in the world was experiencing the same stinky problem. So, in 1898, the first international-planning conference convened in New York City. It was scheduled to run for 10 days but was abandoned after just three days because none of the delegates could see any solution to the problem of the output from horses, which the cities so depended on.

The problem did seem intractable. The larger the city became, the more horses it needed. The more horses, the more manure.

Another problem was the abuse that many of these horses suffered. Drivers sometimes beat their horses, neglected them, or forced them to pull more than they could bear. For many of these animals, life was bitter and short. In addition to all of the manure, horse carcasses littered the streets. In time, horse abuse came to be seen as a major public problem. This led to the formation of The American Society for the Prevention and Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA), which was formed in 1866. Protecting horses was its most urgent goal at that time. Laws were soon made that horses had to be stabled at night and could not be left on the streets. Beating horses came with a fine and dead horses had to be disposed of properly and sold for glue.

Ultimately the great horse manure crisis was solved by — you guessed it — the invention of the automobile. Many people think that the need to go farther and faster were the reasons that the automobile took off. However, necessity is the mother of all invention, and the health crisis of the excessive manure was the real push to replace the horse. By 1902 over 90% of rail cars were powered by electricity. By 1920, the transition from horse to automobile was nearly complete, which set the stage for a whole new pollution problem! But that, my friends, is for another article.