noun
night-soil collector
Historical occupation; refers to a person who collected human waste for use as fertilizer. Now obsolete in modern Japan.
江戸時代には、肥取りが町の糞尿を集めて農家に売っていた。
In the Edo period, night-soil collectors gathered human waste from towns and sold it to farmers.
noun, noun or participle which takes 'suru'
night-soil removal
The act or process of collecting human waste for fertilizer. Also a historical term; the verb form 肥取りする is possible but rare.
肥取りは、昔の農業にとって欠かせない作業だった。
Night-soil removal was an essential task for agriculture in the past.