Feb. 1, 1902.] Supplement to tlie *' Tropical Agriculturist.'' S^8 
Records, and Agriculture, North-Western Province 
and Oudh contributes a most valuable note on the 
poisibility of utilising what is always an objection- 
able byproduct, and shows how it can be made 
to take the place of expensive fertilising agenti 
in the raising of successive crops of useful produce. 
The experiment with town drainage as a manure 
was undertaken at Meerut, where there appear 
to have been special facilities for the successful 
carrying out of the trial. Given the same 
facilities elsewhere, there is no reason why other 
Municipal bodies should not suite all prejudice 
against the use of town sewage for agricultural 
purposes, and follow the example of Meerut. We 
now give the text of Mr. Moreland's note on the 
subject ; — 
The following particulars regarding the utiliza- 
tion for agricultural purposes of the town drainage 
of the Meerut Municipality are published in the 
hope that they may be of interest to the members 
of other Municipalities, and also to landowners 
who own towns or bazaars provided with a system 
of street drainage. 
In Meerut the street drains dischnrge into open 
main drains which flow for some distance through 
agricultural land on their way to the water-courses 
which ultimately receive the drainage. The con- 
tents of these drains consist mainly of street- 
rubbish, sullage-water and the like, diluted by the 
water with which the drains are flushed. Night- 
soil is carted away and trenched, but much urine 
Also finds its way into the drains. The drainage is 
a thick sluggish liquid, of a dark colour and 
offensive smell, and containing large quantities of 
impurities both suspended and dissolved. 
Until about 1895 no use was made of this 
drainage as there appear* to hare been an im- 
pression that it was unsuitable for application to 
land. In that year the Collector, acting on the 
advice of the Agricultural Chemist to the Govern- 
ment of India, started some experiments at the 
Demonstration Farm to test the value of the 
drainage when applied in the liquid form to 
various common crops. The results were start- 
lingly successful, and the cultivators in the 
neighbourhood of the Farm were quick to see the 
advantages of this new method of manuring. 
Within two yeare of the beginning of the experi- 
ments, cultivators were found willing to pay a fee 
of two rupees for each lift set up to raise the 
drainage from the channels to their fields ; the 
number of lifts in use has latterly been about 45, 
bringing into the Municipality about 2,701 per 
annum, the whole of which is clear profit; and the 
annual charge per lift has recently been raised 
from Rs. 6 to Rs. 12 without, it is understood, 
restricting the application of the drainage. Of 
course it would be preferable to charge according 
to the area irrigated, and in Meerut most of the 
advantages derived from the drainage have been 
intercepted by the landowners. 
The water is raised from the drains by lifts of 
the type ordinarily used with wells, and is applied 
to the land exactly like irrigation- water. The 
ordinary method of cropping land treated with 
this drainage water is to take three crops in the 
year, maise, potatos and tobacco being groWn 
successively without any manure other than that 
supplied by the drainage, which serves also for 
irrigation. It would scarcely be possible to devise 
a more exhausting rotation, but the mauurial con- 
stituents of the drainage enable it to be maintained 
without loss of fertility. The Superintendent of 
the Cawnpore Farm, who has close practical 
knowledge of high farming, writes : " Tiie con- 
dition of the potato and tobacco crops which I saw 
on good many fields was all that could be desired, 
and was simply excellent; no potato crop was seen 
which could have been put at less than seven or 
eight tons of tubers per acre. The oral reports of 
the cultivators about the maize were equally 
favourable. The gross money value •£ the three 
crops taken together may be put at not lese than 
Rs. 400 and as much as Rs. 500 or even more, 
per acre per annum." 
Enquiries show that formerly this land received 
heavy dressings of poudrette, costing about Rs. 50 
to Rs. 100 a year ; the replacement of this manure 
by drainage water, costing twelve rupees for ae 
many acres as can be watered by one lift is an 
obvious saving to the cultivator, and the land- 
owner has not been slow in claiming a share of the 
advantage. The rents of the land treated in this 
way have riseu all round and in some cases have 
doubled ; they now range from Rs. 50 to Rs. 100 
per acre. 
The facts enumerated above show better than 
any results of analysis or artificial experiment the 
value as manure of this material whieh previously 
ran to waste ; on sanitary grounds, too, it seems 
preferable that the drainage water should be run 
on to a large area of absorbent land, rather than 
that it should stagnate in the drains. From tliis 
point of view the best results will be obtained if 
the land to be irrigated is a light, rather sandy 
loam, and this is just the sort of a land where such 
an application should be most profitable to the 
agriculturists. 
The following hints may be of service where it i» 
desired to imitate the success attained in Meerut. — 
The first step should usually be to take a sm ill 
area of land near the drains and raise fodder 
crops on it : these are remarkably successful in 
Meerut, and the produce can generall/ be fed to the 
conservancy cattle. When cultivators gee the 
crops 80 raised they will probably want to try the 
drainage, and it will be wise to let them have the 
use of it free of charge for at any rate one season. 
When they have become accustomed to it a charge 
can be introduced. The exact nature of the 
charge must depend on the arrangements which 
can be made by the Municipality. The system in 
Meerut is particularly simple, but as has been 
shown most of the benefit goes to the landowner : 
an acreage rate is fairer to all parties if the area 
irrigated can be easily ascertained : while the most 
profitable system of all would be to hold the 
irrigable land directly and let it out by auction to 
cultivators. 
In conclusion it may be noted that in some cases 
it is possible the use of drainage water may lead to 
a slight decrease in the demand for poudrette : 
but the manure supply it nowhere excenive, and 
