624 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



new refuse water. Mr. Elsasser, whilst living at Loburg, has very suc- 

 cessfully made 250 hectares of artificial meadows which are irrigated 

 with refuse water from several starch factories. In the potato-starch 

 factories, mostly located on light soil, the advantage of irrigating with 

 potato-refuse water is very evident, for formerly it flowed into brooks 

 and rivers and made the water unfit for fish. Whenever a new starch 

 factory is started intelligent farmers in the first place look to the possi- 

 bility of irrigating their meadows with the refuse water, and of thus 

 gaining a hitherto unknown wealth of good hay, and the gain from the 

 factory itself only seems a secondary consideration. The best and most 

 surprising specimen of what may be accomplished by constant irriga- 

 tion with potato-refuse water may be seen at Knoblauchshof, near Lo- 

 burg, the property of Counsellor Friedrich Knoblauch, of Magdeburg. 

 Here may be seen the largest starch factory in Germany, and by the 

 system of irrigation with potato-refuse water 50 hectares of entirely 

 unproductive land have been transformed into magnificent meadows, 

 yielding 25,000 pounds of the very best hay per hectare. The plans for 

 this establishment have all been made by Mr. Elsasser. 



Distilleries, malt-houses, and breweries may of course use their refuse 

 water in the same profitable manner ; the area to be irrigated need not 

 be very large, but the expense of making the necessary arrangements 

 will be amply repaid. 



After carefully examining this whole question in all its bearings, I 

 have arrived at the conviction that there will be no risk whatever if 

 the government were to prohibit all factories from letting their refuse 

 water flow into public waters in an unfiltered condition. A period of 

 two to three years should be granted for making the necessary changes, 

 and By appointing a commission of competent men the factories should 

 in every possible way be assisted in the work. 



Cities and villages should be absolutely prohibited from making rivers 

 and brooks the receptacles of all the filth from their sewers. All exer- 

 tions to revive our fisheries will be in vain if we cannot give the fish 

 what they need above everything else, viz, pure, wholesome water. It 

 must also be taken into consideration that as matters stand at present 

 an enormous amount of valuable manure is absolutely lost in the refuse 

 water from our factories. If the system of irrigation by refuse water 

 from the factories and the sewers of cities could be generally intro- 

 duced, our farmers would not only save a good deal of money which is 

 now spent in buying artificial fertilizers, but they would also (more 

 than by protective tariffs) be enabled to successfully compete with the 

 agricultural products of foreign countries. 



It is to be hoped that when our legislators — as will be the case at no 

 distant date — take up the important subject of the pollution of public 

 waters by refuse water, they will properly consider all the above-men- 

 tioned points. 



