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ABSTRACT REPORT OF AGRICULTURAL 

 DISCUSSIONS. 



Meeting of Weelchj Council, Wednesday, February 15///. The Presi- 

 dcut, Sir E. Keiuuson, M.P., in the Chair. Mr. J. B. Lawes, of 

 Eotliamsted, St. Albans, delivered a Lcctui'c on the suly'ect of Town 

 Sewage, considered with reference to its ai^idicability and value for 

 agricultural pui-poses. 



Lecturk and Discussion on Town Sewage. 



Mr. Lawes said : The utilisation of sewage has of late occupied a 

 large share of public attention. During the last two sessions of Par- 

 liament two Committees have sat, and they have reported very volumi- 

 nously oil the subject. There lias also been a great deal of discussion 

 in newspapers ; and very recently Baron Liebig and Mr. Morton have 

 favoui'cd us with their views, one in a report addressed to the Lord 

 Mayor of London, the other in a paper read before the Society of 

 Ai'ts, the latter being followed by a discussion which extended over 

 two nights. Looking at the whole question of sewage, we cannot be 

 surprised at so much interest being taken in it by the population of 

 the towns generally, and more csjiecially by the inhabitants of London. 

 Immense sewage-works have lately been carried on, and as the expense 

 has pressed rather heavily on the ratepayers, it is not astonishing that 

 they shoidd listen with rather credulous ears to those who tell them 

 that in the sewage they possess a mine of wealth, which, if properly 

 worked, will repay them for all the outlay they have incurred. 



Now, ten years ago I read a paper before the Society of Arts on the 

 composition and the utilization of the sewage of London, and it was 

 followed by a discussion of great interest. The question then was 

 whether sewage should be used in a solid or a liquid form. The 

 advocates for its use in a solid form were there represented, and sup- 

 ported their views ; but I think I may say that nearly all those who 

 had paid any close practical attention to' the subject of manm-es, felt 

 quite satisfied that the manufactm-e of a solid manure could not be 

 profitably carried out by a process which, while it preserved the 

 least valuable parts of sewage, allowed the most valuable to escape. 

 It required the cxpenditm-e of something like 60,000Z., at Leicester, to 

 prove that those who took the latter view were correct. At the 

 present time we have no advocates for a solid manure from sewage ; 

 the battle still rages, but it is whether the liquid sewage shall be 

 appKed in large quantities, and chiefly to grass ; or in small quantities 

 to arable land and to all crops '? 



In a discussion of this kind, the first question that arises is 

 "What is sewage "? or rather, What is the composition of sewage ? If 

 the Eoyal Commission, of which I have been a member for some years, 



