Protection Against Fraudulent Manures. 



457 



Mr Watson said if the benefits of analysis, such as 

 had been recommended, were confined to the members 

 of their association, he thought Mr Gillart's project 

 could be carried out. The idea was a very practical 

 one, and much good might be effected. An instance 

 came before him not long ago, in the way of business, 

 where a famier near Lanchester bought some guano or 

 artificial manure, which was represented to be of very 

 excellent quality. He tried it, and it turned out to be 

 almost worthless. Fortunately, he retained a sample 

 from the bulk, and he (Mr Watson), on being con- 

 sulted on the subject, sent the sample to an eminent 

 chemist in Newcastle for analysis. That analysis he 

 would bring with him to the next meeting of the 

 Chamber. He might state, however, that the analysis 

 fully confirmed the farmer's suspicions that he had 

 been imposed upon, inasmuch as he had received for 



;^io, los. a ton an article the outside value of whicli 

 was;if3, los. a ton. If that Chamber could protect it'^ 

 members from such impositions, he was sure that it 

 would confer a very great practical benefit ; and he 

 thought Mr Gillart was entitled to their thanks for 

 having brought such a very proper subject before the 

 meeting. 



Mr Holmes said he and Mr George Crofton once 

 had a joint investment in an " economical " manure, 

 and it was so economical that neither of them ever got 

 a turnip. 



Mr (iiLi.ART hoped the time had not been expended 

 uselessly in discussing a subject which he had intro- 

 duced without sufficient notice ; but he thought it 

 would be better to reserve for future consideration 

 the steps which the Chamber would take in refer- 

 ence to it. 



THE SEWAGE QUESTION. 



AFIFESHH>IP: FARMER" writes as follows 

 in the North British Daily Mail on this sub- 

 ject, with reference to the proposed utilization of the 

 sewage of Glasgow : — 



Sir, — In your valuable paper of 27th ult. I find a 

 report by the celebrated engineers, Messrs Bateman 

 cS; Bazalgette, on the disposal of the sewage of Glas- 

 gow. With so complete machinery as is proposed 

 through piping, tunneling, and pumping, for disposing 

 of the sewage at the enormous cost of nearly a million 

 and a-half of money, one would have expected an 

 equally detailed report as to the construction of pre- 

 mises and machinery for converting the sewage into 

 the condition essential for becoming a universal 

 manure, giving profitable returns for such an outlay, 

 instead of tenninating in the irrigation of a few thou- 

 sand acres. However esteemed this report may be 

 by the Town Council and enterprizing citizens of 

 Glasgow, from the place and circumstances in which 

 they are led to view it, let them only leave the 

 field of theoretical discussion for our farms and the 

 meadows proposed to be irrigated, and they must, 

 from this point of view, along with every enlightened 

 and enterprizing agriculturist, be persuaded to regard 

 the scheme, however skilful and costly, as but tending 

 to waste that valuable ammonia of which the whole 

 country is so much in want. Let the Town Council 

 reflect upon the able lecture delivered twelve months 

 ago, by Trofessor Anderson before the committee of 

 the Highland and Agricultural Society in Glasgow, 

 when they will be reminded of the ultimately un- 

 avoidable deficiency of ammonia for agi-icultural pur- 

 poses from the gradual and inevitable exhaustion of 

 our present sources of supply, " when within another 

 generation it will," he says, "become a serious ques- 



tion." In confirmation of the Professor's statements 

 the agents of the Peruvian Government have an- 

 nounced a rise of IDs. per ton in the price of Peruvian 

 guano, and it is anticipated that a further rise of los. 

 will take place in January. Under such an anticipa- 

 tion the agriculturists of this country must certainly 

 with great interest await the steps of the Town 

 Council of Glasgow in disposing of the sewage of their 

 city, and must earnestly hope that, with such a fact 

 before them, whatever steps they take in disposing of 

 the sewage, all care will be taken of that valuable 

 manurial ingredient which their sewage holds in 

 solution, so richly, indeed, that it might become no 

 secondary substitute for Peruvian guano. It is a well- 

 established principle in agriculture that certain ele- 

 ments in the soil are necessary for the proper nourish- 

 ment of a plant, and the regidar succession of that 

 plant so exhausts the land that if the element is 

 not returned the soil would become ultimately 

 sterile. Where, then, must this element come from, 

 and to whom must the farmer look with reasonable 

 expectation for this supply but in the city of a half 

 million consumers of his productions. The farmers of 

 our country have as good a right to interdict this 

 wholesale destruction of so valuable a manure, as the 

 citizens of Glasgow would have to interfere were the 

 agriculturists combining for the purpose of turning the 

 entire lands out of cultivation into deer foi'ests. Does 

 not the solution of the manure question lie in the ope- 

 rations of the Councils of Glasgow and similar cities, if 

 rightly directed ? The scheme of Messrs Bateman & 

 Bazalgette cannot meet the demand. At the enonnous 

 cost of nearly a million and a-half of money the town 

 of Glasgow may be delivered of its pollution and 

 imwholesome odours, but beyond a few privileged 



