54 BOARD OF AGRICULTUEE. 



There is one element taken out from their sewage which is a 

 very large and important one in our sewers. It is estimated 

 that in Boston fully twenty tons of soap go down the sewers 

 every day, with its potash and grease. That is one element 

 which we have that was not to be found in the sewers of the 

 ancient world. Then we have a large amount of household 

 slops and foecal matter in our sewage which, in most Euro- 

 pean cities, they do not have, to any great extent, and in 

 ancient cities it formed no part of sewage. The sewage of 

 this country is charged Avith it. Everybody has a water- 

 closet to-day, and the deposits, caused by the precipitation 

 of this matter, are creating a nuisance around the wharves 

 and tidal basins of our seaboard cities which was entirely 

 unknown a few years ago. When I commenced my work 

 as a rodman I had frequent occasion to examine the contents 

 of sewers above tide-water, and I did not discover anything 

 otfensive in the water flowing in them. There was no 

 trouble then. In 1848 Boston introduced the Cochituate 

 water. For five years water-closets w^ere not so numerous 

 as to be specially enumerated. In 1853, the first enumera- 

 tion of the water-closets in Boston was taken, and there 

 were then 2,479, or one for every 55 of the population. In 

 1860 they had increased to 9,864, or one for every 18 of 

 the population. In 1870 they had increased to 25,060, or 

 one for every 10 of the population. In 1880 they had in- 

 creased to 62,104, or one for every 5.8 of the population. 

 To-day, there are 65,000 Avater-closets pouring the foecal 

 discharges of our population into the harbor. 



Now, if you are familiar with organic chemistry at all, 

 you know that nitrogen exists in all its various forms in the 

 w^aste of animal life, and that this matter contains the most 

 active form of nitrogen known. It is all ready for fermenta- 

 tion, and after active fermentation, the nitrogen of excre- 

 mentitious matter is entirely different from tlie nitrogen of 

 fats or soap. Consequently, the discharge of those old 

 sewers passed oft', in various ways, without creating a very 

 serious nuisance. To-day, the sewage that is distributed 

 about the wharves of our seaboard cities has accumulated to 

 such an extent that it has become an offence which is intol- 

 erable. Twenty-one years ago, when I suggested to the 



