No. 4. 



Sewage Manure. 



127 



and at a cost of 48s.; a second portion, with 

 the same compost, giving sixteen tons per 

 acre, and at a cost of 64s.; a third divi.sion, 

 with guano, two cwt., costing IGs. ; a fourth 

 with guano, four cwt. per acre, at a cost of 

 32s. Another ridge, similar in extent to the 

 whole of this, was manured with sewer wa- 

 ter, at the rate of sixteen tons per acre, and 

 taking it at 3d. per ton the cost would be 4s. 

 The average produce ofthewiiole variety — 

 the different specimens were not ascertained 

 separately — was, with the dung and guano, 

 furty-five bushels per acre of good barley; 

 that with the sewage water averaged forty- 

 two bufhels per acre — showing that this 

 small quantity of sixteen tons had the efl^ect 

 of coming very nearly up to the dung and 

 the guano, but showing also that more liquid 

 manure might be given with safety. The 

 sixteen tons were applied twice; all the 

 others were once. The sewage water was 

 taken from a tank, into which it flows from 

 the streets of Stirling. A second experi- 

 ment was made in raising turnips (the green 

 top yellow) upon a similar soil, to the extent 

 of a quarter of a rood, with two tons of sew- 

 age water, equal to thirty-two tons per acre, 

 costing 8s.; the produce twenty-eight tons 

 per statute acre of bulbs — so that a ton of 

 sewage water very nearly raises a ton of 

 turnips. Another experiment was made in 

 1845, al.-^o by Mr. Smith. This was by re- 

 taining the night arine of two people during 

 a given time, to enable them to apply it to a 

 rood of land. This being mixed with ashes, 

 to make it applicable in that way, gave 27 

 tons per acre of turnips; and calculating 

 from that, Mr. S. found that the urine of two 

 pcr-ons would suffice for an acre per annum. 

 The remainder of the ground was manured 

 somewhat differently: one with 500 cwt. of 

 gnano, the produce 3*2 tons per acre; one 

 with farm-yard dung (20 tons,) 31 tons per 

 acre; another with ash-dung (30 tons,) 31 

 tons of bulbs per acre; one with ash-dung 

 alone (12 tons,) 23 tons per acie. Another 

 experiment was made upon a farm at Glas- 

 gow, where the liquid manure was put over 

 the land, and the growth continued during 

 the whole of the winter of 1845-6 in a very 

 remarkable way. That season, it is well 

 known, was a great season for grass every- 

 where; but notwithstanding that, Mr. Smith 

 says it was distinguished before all the grass 

 of the country round, he havmg seen in the 

 beginning of December, 1845, forty-three 

 Irish bullocks wading to the fetlocks in 

 grass upon some of their fields, and eating 

 it most greedily, while the fields upon the 

 farms in the neighbourhood were perfectly 

 bare. 



Mr, Harvey, of Glasgow, also applied 



sewage wafer to some wheat land before 

 the crop was sown, and he had a luxuriant 

 crop, more so than the other crops in the 

 neighbtnirhood, and upon land which was 

 rather cold, backward land. 



The following is another instance, show- 

 ing how the solid manure of farms may be 

 converted into a liquid torm. A gentleman 

 near Dumfries has made a tank, into which 

 he has carried all the water from his farm- 

 stead and his house, the sewage of his house, 

 and also has put in some .solid manure, and 

 has applied water to it; and just with a 

 common pump, \^ hich is worked by two men, 

 he was, during the whole of the winter of 

 1845, irrigating his lawn, which produced 

 the most beautiful flush of fine grass. The 

 operation was performed with the hose-pipe 

 early in the morning, and without emitting 

 any annoying smell. Indeed, when the sew- 

 age water is sufficiently diluted to be most 

 beneficial to the earth, there is very little 

 smell. 



The result of the comparison between the 

 efl^ects of liquid and solid manure is shown 

 in the following experiment: Mr. Barber, of 

 Muirdroachwood, had twenty-seven acres of 

 land before his house, and the land was so 

 poor that it originally only fed two cows: 

 he had forty cows and four horses in his 

 stable close to his house. He put the dung 

 of forty cows into a tank, and passed a rill 

 of water through the tank, and irrigated 

 twenty-two acres. With the miscellaneous 

 refuse of his house, the scullery, he irrigated 

 five acres. The produce was so large that 

 on that same plot he has been enabled to 

 feed the forty cows and his four horses. 



Another very important fact is also de- 

 serving of mention. At Edinburgh, where 

 sewage water is also very extensively used, 

 land which formerly let near the sea, sandy 

 land at not more than half a crown an acre, 

 and from that to five shillings, has been let 

 regularly for many years at £20 an acre. 



Such are some of the results of the appli- 

 cation of sewage manure by practical agri- 

 culturists in Scotland. Nor are there want- 

 ing similar instances by others south of the 

 Tweed. Mr. Dixon, the well known horse 

 dealer, by the application of liquid manure — 

 in this case urine and water, which is very 

 similar to the sewage water — has kept 100 

 horses — as far as grass was required — from 

 the Italian rye-erass crown upon four acres. 

 The water is collected from the stables by 

 small covered drains, and conveyed into a 

 tank in the yard. Mr. Dixon, in his evidence 

 before the Parliamentary Committee last 

 session, says: — "I have a drain down the 

 centre of the stall, connected with the stink- 

 trap, before it is carried away into the urine 



