president's address — SECTION H. 167 



desired. The Berlin farm at Osdorf is controlled and culti- 

 vated by the city of Berlin for its own account, and the sales 

 from the farm cover all working expenses, but not the 

 interest on capital. 



With regard to the disposal of those organic wastes 

 which are unsuitable for conveyance by means of water, 

 these may be divided into two classes : a, nightsoil, offal 

 from slaughter houses, condemned food, diseased animals, 

 &c. ; h, vegetable wastes, street sweepings, &c., known as 

 garbage. The former may be converted into a poudrette 

 manure, the latter is best disposed of by burning it to a hard 

 cUnker. 



Farmer's Patent Dessicators have been largely used for 

 nightsoil and the offal of slaughter-houses, which consists of a 

 steam jacketted twin cylinder, provided with steel scrapers 

 or arms attached to shafts ; the shafts revolve and carry 

 round the arms, which thoroughly mix and cut up the 

 material ; scraping the core of the cylinder, they move the 

 charge backwards and forwards and automatically eject it at 

 the two discharging doors when the process of dessication is 

 complete. The vapours arising from the drying process are 

 drawn off by means of an exhauster fan, and discharged into 

 a surface condenser, or burnt in a furnace. The charge, when 

 drawn, if offal is being treated, consists of a line brown 

 powder, smelling like cocoa ; it is a valuable fertiliser. In 

 the City of Melbourne this system is used to deal with the 

 abattoir refuse, and the results are most satisfactory. Mr. 

 E. W. Cracknell has patented an apparatus for dealing with 

 nightsoil, which consists of a single steam jacketted cylinder, 

 resembling a boiler ; a shaft, carrying arras, is made to 

 revolve in this cylinder, cutting up the nightsoil and otlier 

 materials discharged with it. The gases given off are burnt 

 in a furnace, and the product is sold as manure. 



Farmer's apparatus appears to be more suitable for 

 abattoir refuse, while Cracknell's appears to be most suitable 

 for nightsoil. 



With regard to the destruction of garbage, various 

 systems have been introduced in England which have for 

 their object the destruction of this kind of refuse, and the 

 combustion of the noxious gases generated in the jn-ocess ; 

 among the most extensively used is that known as Fryer's. 

 In Sydney, Mr. E. W. Cracknell has also designed and 

 constructed a destructor for garbage. Fryer's apparatus 

 consists of a group of furnaces or cells, arranged back to 



