Utilisation of Toim Setcat/e. 
dressinsrs," it mav appear to some that it would have been well 
had the Commission experimented upon com and other crops as 
well as grass, and applied the sewage in smaller quantities per 
acre. It mav be ad\-isable, therefore, to mention some of the 
circumstances which influenced the Commission in limiting their 
experiments in the first instance to grass alone, and in decitling 
upon the quantities of sewage to be applied. It will be sufficient 
to cite the previous experience obtained at Watford, Rugby, and 
Edinburgh on these points. 
The chairman of the Commission, the Earl of Essex, who rents 
the sewage of the town of Watford, had laid down pipes for its 
application over 210 acres of mixed arable and grass-land ; but 
had been led bv experience to limit the application to but a small 
proportion of that area, and almost exclusively to either perma- 
nent meadow, or Italian rve-grass. Indeed, in his evidence 
before the Committee of the House of Commons last year, his 
Lordship stated that practicallv he limited the application to 
about 10 acres of Italian rve-grass, and 35 acres of meadow-land ; 
for the former of which he required about 5000 tons per acre per 
annum ; and that for the latter the amount remaining at his dis- 
posal was inadequate. 
At Rugby about 6700 of the population contribute to the 
sewage, and pipes were laid do^Ti for its application to about 
470 acres of mixed arable and grass-land. The quantitv of sewage 
pumped daily (which is by no means the total vield of the town) 
averages about 750 tons, and, reckoning 300 working days, this 
gives a supply of 225,000 tons per annum. If this amount were 
equally distiibuted over the 470 acres piped for its application, 
the supply would be something less than 500 tons sewage per 
acre per annum. But when the Commission first visited Rugby, 
in order to arrange with Mr. Walker, the proprietor of the land 
and of the sewage works, and with Mr. Campljell, the tenant of 
about 190 acres, for the use of a few acres of the land, and a 
supply of sewage, they found that the practical experience of 
some years had led to the limitation of the application almost 
exclusively to grass, and also, in a great measure, to the aban- 
donment of the use of the hose and jet, and the substitution of 
open runs. The sewage, instead of being applied to 470 acres 
oi mixed aralile and grass land, was limited to but a fraction of 
that area ; and Mr. Campbell, who had pipes laid down for 
about 190 acres, and was paving rent accordinglv, had abandoned 
the use on all but about a dozen acres of permanent meadow or 
Italian rve-grass. 
Neither Mr. Campbell, nor the present or previous tenant of 
the other portion of the land laid out for sewage irrigation at 
Rugby, was examined before the Committee of the House of 
F 2 
