128 



going towards defraying the expenses of the estab- 

 lishment maintained for this purpose. Having three 

 pits, each holding fully a year's collection, there 

 would be one pit in use, another containing the refuse 

 of the previous year in process of decomposition, 

 while the third contains available manure. 



There are some towns in India where the utili- 

 zation of human refuse is carried on systematically ; 

 Furrukhabad for instance. From a report of 

 Mr. E. C. Buck I abstract the following, which 

 will confirm what has been repeatedly advanced, 

 that the value of human refuse as a manure cannot 

 be over-estimated. He says : 



" The Kachies are a well-known class of cultivators in 

 the Doab, and correspond to the class known as market- 

 gardeners in England. They are seldom found except in 

 the vicinity of large villages or towns, in which manure is 

 plentiful and easily accessible, because the crops which 

 they are skilled in producing are all crops which require a 

 large supply of manure. By this system three crops can 

 be produced on the same ground every year : Mukka, 

 or Indian corn, is grown in the rains ; potatoes at the 

 commencement, and tobacco at the end, of the cold 

 weather. The gross outturn of these three crops is valued 

 at between 300 and 400 rupees in some years. A potato 

 crop sometimes weighs 150 maunds to the acre, and sells 

 for 1 or 1 J rupee a maund ; on the other hand, the cost 

 of cultivation is great. The area under this triple crop 

 in one year in the vicinity of the city was 1,312 acres. 

 Land under such heavy cropping as this requires to be 

 sustained by a very large supply of manure. The Kachies 



