Utilisation of Excrementitiovts Matter. 
117 
spring of 1862. He applied the manure to patclies of man- 
gold and swedes ; and the land steward who persuaded him 
to try it, states that he never saw such fine roots as were then 
grown. 
In 1860 a farm bailiff received from me one cwt. of mixed 
earth from my stock of three cartloads, which had passed five 
times through a closet used by fifteen persons, and had subse- 
quently lain in the shed full seven months. He applied it to a 
quarter of an acre of ground, drilling it in with swp<les. To the 
remainder of the field of four acres, an equal dressing of super- 
phosphate was applied. The crop, though injured by the rapid 
growth of weeds in that wet trying season, was good. But the 
roots in the quarter of an acre, which received the mixed 
earth, when pulled up and weighed, exceeded by one-third 
any that could be found in the rest of the field. In 1861 this 
same field was sown to barlev. Throughout the growth of tlie 
crop the appearance of this same quarter of an acre, with 
no additional manure, was manifestly superior to that of the 
remainder of the field ; and the bailiff estimated the produce to 
be in the proportion of four to three. 
Again, in the spring of 1862, Mr. R. Ilayne, of Fordington, 
received from me 4 cwt. of earth which had passed seven times 
through the closet, and had afterwards Iain for six months in the 
shed. This he used, at the rate of 1 cwt. to an acre, instead of 
crushed bones on a piece of very poor land to be sown to turnips. 
Both he and Mr. R. Damen, of Dorchester, a well-known 
agriculturist, consider the crop to have been remarkably good, 
and that crushed bones could not have answered better as a 
manure. 
According to these experiments, then, whatever the market- 
able value of manure thus manufactured may prove, such com- 
post used five times over is as effectual as superphosphate in 
promoting the growth of turnips, and therefore may be priced 
at the same rate per ton, whilst more repeated use might bring 
it up to the value of guano. 
The value of this manure might also be estimated from the 
relation between the bulk of earth used and the number of persons 
availing themselves of the closet for a certain time. We have 
seen that three cartloads served fifteen persons for half a year, 
being used five times over in that time. At that rate 1 ton 
would last two and a half persons for a year. Now, if we reckon 
that the total excreta of a man have an average value of 1/, per 
annum (they have often been set much higher), we thus arrive 
at a value of 21. 10s. for each ton of earth used five times, or 
of 3/. IOa'. for that used seven times. 
