Mar. 2, 1888.] 



SCIENTIFIC NEVV^S. 



195 



be returned to it, and render it perennially fertile without 

 any guano or coprolites, or quack nostrums in the shape 

 of artificial manure. 



It has been proved to demonstration that by having a 

 double set of conduits, one for interior house drainage, 

 another for rain water (a tube for carrying the former 

 laid within the brick sewer that carries the latter will do 

 it), we can easily pump the valuable sewage away as 

 fast as it is produced, and carry it, while fresh and 

 valuable, as many miles as necessary for distributing 

 over the land that needs it, whatever the level of that 

 land may be. 



In the Journal of the Society of Arts of December 9th 

 is a most valuable letter, by that able and veteran sani- 



case he mentions, the " right hon. landlord exacted ^4 

 per acre " for land previously let at los., and now ot 

 course worth much less than los. In these cases sewage 

 farming does pay — somebody ; but the profits, like the 

 handkerchiefs and watches of Mr. Fagin's establishment, 

 are transferred to the wrong pockets. 



NATURAL GAS. 



OUR readers are aware that in Pennsylvania and 

 other parts of the United States large quantities of 

 natural gas which issue from the earth are collected and 

 conveyed long distances in pipes to places where it can 



Gas Wells at Fort Scott, Kansas, as seen at Night. 



tarian, Edwin Chadwick, which lets the daylight very 

 distinctly into the alleged failures of this simple and 

 natural solution of the difficulty. The sewage farms are 

 doubly jobbed. The farming tenants of the Corporation, 

 as Mr. Chadwick mildly puta it, are not in the habit of 

 considering that they are obliged to disclose the profits 

 of sewage farming ; " indeed, they generally be-little 

 them, from apprehended increase of their landlords' 

 unearned increments." 



On the other hand, the landlords fleece the Corpora- 

 tions by charging rentals of double, quadruple, and even 

 tenfold value. Thus above ;^io per acre is extorted at 

 Croydon for agricultural land worth 23s. In another 



be used for heating and lighting. According to an 

 American contemporary, the gas field of Murrysville is 

 now one of the wonders of the world. One hundred and 

 twenty-five wells, within a radius of one mile, are pouring 

 forth a truly astonishing volume of gas. It is said that 

 there is no perceptible diminution in the flow of gas, 

 while it is estimated that on an average each " well " 

 yields daily from 50,000,000 to 75,000,000 cubic feet. 

 If we take 60,000,000 as the mean quantity, and multiply 

 this by 125, the total yield reaches the enormous volume 

 of 7,500,000,000 cubic feet per diem ! There are now 

 fifteen gas-pipe lines conveying the gas to as many 

 different points for use. 



