492 Toxim Sewage. 



fluid and excretal matters available per acre somewliat below tlie 

 quantities above stated. 



About 12 years ago, arrangements were made for collecting 

 the sewage of Rugby in a tank, from which it is pumped, by a 

 12-horse power engine, through iron pipes laid down for the dis- 

 tribution over about 470 acres of mixed arable and grass-land. 

 Up to last year 190 acres were held by Mr. James Archibald 

 Campbell, but he has gradually limited the area of application, 

 and during the last few years has abandoned the use of hose and 

 jet, excepting occasionally on a small scale, and confined the 

 application almost exclusively to from 12 to 20 acres of meadow 

 and Italian rye-grass. The remainder of the land, amounting to 

 about 280 acres, has passed through the hands of two tenants, 

 both of whom are said to have sustained considerable loss. The 

 last of the two had confined the application almost exclusively 

 to about 100 acres of grass-land, and applied the sewage almost 

 entirely by open runs. The whole is now in the hands of the 

 landlord, Mr. G. H. Walker, who, it is understood, is contem- 

 plating the abandonment of the use of steam-power, pipes, and 

 hose and jet, and the application to a limited area by means of 

 gravitation. 



The general result at Rugby is, then, that after about a dozen 

 years of practical experience, with arrangements adapted for the 

 application of small quantities of sewage per acre to arable as 

 well as to grass-land and to all crops, the area has been greatly 

 limited, the use to any other crops than meadow and Italian rye- 

 grass become quite exceptional, and the application by means of 

 steam-power, pipes, and hose and jet, will probably soon be entirely 

 abandoned. It may be added that, at the time of the experi- 

 ments of the Commission, the sewage, which was considerably 

 stronger than that of the Metropolis, cost the tenants only about 

 ^d. per ton at the hydrants in the fields ; yet, rather than incur 

 the loss of using it at that cost, both were glad to get rid of it to 

 the Commission, at rates which, though three times as high 

 during the six summer as during the six winter months, averaged 

 the year round scarcely, but very nearly. Id, per ton at the 

 hydrants. 



Some years ago, the Earl of Essex laid down pipes for the 

 application of the sewage of Watford, by pumping and hose and 

 jet, to about 210 acres of mixed arable and grass land. The 

 results which his Lordship obtained on the application of only 

 134 tons of sewage per acre to wheat have frequently been held 

 to be conclusive proof of its applicability in small quantities 

 per acre over large areas, to arable land, and to all crops. But 

 in the evidence given by his Lordship before the Sewage Com- 



