66 
Utilisation of Toim Seimge. 
opinion that 300 tons of sewage per acre would accomplish the 
same results as the 10,000 tons which he had in point of fact 
applied ! Another witness, just returned from a visit of inspec- 
tion of the sewage meadows at Edinburgh and Rugby, considered 
the inferiority of the produce at Rugby to be due to the much 
smaller quantity of sewage there applied, the amount ranging 
from 3000 to 9000 tons per acre ; whilst, in the case of the Edin- 
burgh meadows to which he referred, it was estimated by the 
same witnesi at 10,000 to 12,000 tons per acre, and to be as 
high as 30,000 to 40,000 tons on some of the meadows in that 
locality. 
As to the money value of the excrementitious matters of each 
person contributing to sewage, it was assumed that the results 
recorded by one w itness showed it to be about 20s., and those 
of another about Is. 9fZ. per head per annum. Again, estimates 
of the value of a ton of sewage varied from about a halfpenny to 
about 9rZ. And, finally, the evidence showed that in some cases 
the sewage of only about two persons, and in others that of 300 
or more, had been applied to an acre of land. 
The Royal Sewage Commission, appointed some years ago 
" to inquire into the best mode of distributing the sewage of 
towns, and applying it to beneficial and profitable uses," in tlie 
prosecution of their inquiry, visited almost every locality where 
town sewage was applied in any way to the purposes of agri- 
culture, and the evidence they collected was almost as conflicting 
as that published by the Committee of the House of Commons 
above referred to. Feeling how important it was that the public 
should be put in possession of more exact and reliable data on 
a subject involving such vast sanitary and economical interests, 
the Commission, of which I am a member, decided upon insti- 
tuting some careful experiments on the agricultural application 
of sewage. The experiments were made at Rugby, upon grass- 
land, on which, as aljove alluded to, the sewage was applied at 
the rate of from 3000 to 9000 tons per acre per annum, and the 
Report, giving the results obtained in the first season (1861), has 
already been presented to both Houses of Parliament.* 
It is proposed to lay before the readers of the ' Journal of the 
Royal Agricultural Society ' such portions of this report as bear 
more directly upon the interests of agriculture. 
As, however, the Committee of the House of Commons, in 
their "Analysis of Evidence" above referred to, give it as their 
opinion " that sewage is applicable to all crops, and that if 
commercial results are sought for, it should be applied in small 
* " Second Report of the Commission appointed to inquire into the best mode of 
distributing the Sewage of Towns, and applying it to beneficial and profitable 
uses." (1862.) 
