At Day's Close: Night in Times Past

by A. Roger Ekirch

Finally, in place of costlier alternatives, the lower orders burned cow, oxen, and horse dung. Demand, naturally, increased in the winter when temperatures plummeted and peat fell in short supply. Widely available, dung was kneaded with straw or sawdust, patted into cakes, and piled next to homes to dry. “Dithes,” they were called in Lincolnshire, where, a resident reported, “The cows shit fire.” Despite a sharp odor when burned, dung generated more heat than did wood.