Toicn Sewage. 235 



most probable tliat the view entertained by those who Lad paid most 

 attention to tlie subject, namely, that sewage was most adapted for grass- 

 lands, wbuld ultimately prevail. Perhaps one great advantage of that 

 discussion would be that it might lead those who now insisted so much 

 on the great value of sewage to make arrangements for lowering the 

 price, so that experiments might be made on a large scale. 



Mr. AcLAND, M.P., thought that the experience gained in water- 

 meadows might be turned to good account in discussing this question 

 of sewage, and expressed a hope that, with a view to tlie enlargement 

 of that experience, the Council would direct that further experiments 

 be made, to be recorded in the Journal. In the West of England, 

 farmers were at present quite in the dark as to whether the benefit of 

 the irrigation of their meadows was due to solid manure or liquid 

 manure, or indeed any manm-e at all, contained in the water. So far 

 as his own experience went, it tended in the direction pointed out by 

 Mr. Lawes. A tenant of his father's applied sewage in an elaborate 

 manner to his mangold-wurzel and his swedes, but he did not think the 

 results were very encouraging ; and certainly the general experience 

 of farmers in the West of England showed that anything like a dilu- 

 tion of farmyard-manure was useful on grass, and not on arable land. 

 The exjieriments of Mr. Huxtable led to the conclusion that sewage 

 should be aj)plied chiefly by gravitation, and that if it were applied 

 by any more expensive process, it v/as extremely doubtful whether a 

 jienny or a halfjDcnny j)er ton could be got back. 



Sir John Johnstone, MP., said he understood Mr. Lawes to contend 

 that sewage was especially applicable for rye-grass and other strong 

 feeders, and on that j)oint he quite agreed with him. In the case of a 

 large lunatic asylum in the vicinity of York — he himself was chairman 

 of the visiting committee — the superintendent had endeavoured to 

 utilise the sewage on the arable part of the grounds attached to the 

 institution. The land in question was under spade cultivation to the 

 extent of 24 acres, and the soil was a rather sandy one. The sewage 

 was not exactly liquid, everything in the shajje of deposits being care- 

 fully preserved and afterwards applied with hose to the soil. On 

 that land there had been grown an abundance of mangold-wurzel, 

 potatoes, cabbages, and strawberries. No doubt the successful appli- 

 cation of liquid manure in that case resulted in a great degree from 

 constant care, spade-cultivation, and patient laboiu". There are about 

 550 persons residing in the establishment, and 25,000 gallons of spring- 

 water, from the kitchen, the washhouse, the bath, &c., are daily finding 

 their exit. A large portion of the sewage is put on other land — old 

 grass — for the hay-crop. 



Ml-. Thos. Scott said he was well acqixainted with the efiects of 

 sewage irrigation in England, Ireland, and Scotland, and had made many 

 experiments himself, and — in common, he believed, with all practical 

 men— he had arrived at the conclusion that flooding was the only pro- 

 fitable mode of ap^jlying sewage. Nothing, he believed, had done so 

 much to mislead the Corporation of London, on this subject, as the 

 being furnished with mere analyses of the constituents of sewage. 

 Some years ago, having the management of an estate of 1000 acres 



