234 Abstract Report of Atjricultural Discussions. 



Mr. Fbere said that farmyards were not exempt from dangers of 

 the same kind as those which had just been mentioned. He shoukl 

 like to know whether Dr. Crisp apprehended some new danger ; and 

 whether the eggs in question were destructible by fermentation ? * 



Dr. Crisp replied that the eggs to which he alluded never entered 

 farmyard-manm-e, and that he had no data to guide him mth respect 

 to the action of fei'mentation upon them. 



The Chaiuman said : Being obliged to leave the meeting to attend 

 a deputation, he wished to say one or two words before doing so. He 

 thought great value was to be attached to the discussions which took 

 place on that imjiortant subject. The lecture of Mr. Lawcs, and one 

 which had lately been delivered on the same subject by Mr. Morton, 

 were of great interest, tending as tliey did to prevent exaggerated 

 notions from being taken up, either on the one side or on the other, by 

 ratepayers, who might be led to expect immense returns from the sale 

 of their sewage, or by farmers, who might expect enormous profits 

 from the use of sewage. It had just been remarked that they 

 were still much in the dark about this question. To a certain 

 extent that might be the case ; but still important and careful 

 experiments, extending over two or thi-ee years, had been made at 

 Kugby and elsewhere. He himself had seen the Edinburgh meadows, 

 and he could bear out the testimony of Mr. Morton, that so far as they 

 had proceeded, nothing could liave been more successfid, 350 acres of 

 land having proved sufficient to feed 2000 cows. It appeared to him 

 that there were very good reasons why the Edinburgh experiments 

 should have been more successful than some others. The soil was 

 peculiarly fitted for the experiments, being of a lightish character; 

 and the circumstance of the ground sloping as it did was strongly in 

 its favour, inasmuch as that prevented the sewage from remaining on 

 any spot long enough to sour the herbage on that spot. Any person 

 who had a manure-di'ain opening into a field must have observed that 

 the grass was more apt to become rank just at the outlet of the drain 

 than in any other part ; and an overdose of manm-e remaining in a 

 place where it was stagnant was almost sure to have a bad effect on the 

 quality of the grass. The question had been mooted, whether ploughed 

 land might generally be brought under the influence of sewage. He 

 did not think Mr. Lawes said it could not. He merely quoted Baron 

 Liebig's authority on the matter, and said, in opposition to it, what he 

 (the Chairman) believed was true, that, generally speaking, grass-land 

 Avould most benefit by sewage. In Belgium he had seen clovers on 

 light land brought forward extremely well through the application of 

 sewage ; and he had seen an enormous quantity of potatoes produced 

 by the same means on land of that description. It was possible that 

 sewage might by degrees be applied with advantage on some of the 

 sandy ploughed soils of this country ; but on the whole, he thought it 



* The Chinese use human excreta to a gi-eat extent. The Belgians, too, use 

 the sewage largely as a manure, but I am not aware that either of these people are 

 more troubled with entozoa than their neighbours ; but I speak guardedly upon 

 this subject. The worm spoken of [oxijurk] does not directly affect human life, 

 but there were others of greater import. — Dr. C. 



