CARBOLIC ACID AS A DISINFECTANT, ETC. 391 
agricultural meeting, when he said, “ he could not but think 
that the progress of chemical science, and the application of 
that science to agriculture, would lead to something that 
would render the farmers less solicitous about guano, and 
give them a reproductive substance nearly as good, to be ob¬ 
tained, not from the other side of the world, but at their own 
doors/’ As well as the statement made by Mr. Brady, that 
“no more important subject could occupy the attention of the 
House of Commons, for the most fearful results have followed 
from the neglect of the sewage question. Death, lurking 
stealthily in alleys, and courts, and cesspools, lay in wait to 
remove strong healthy men from the scenes of life.” 
“Exeter; March Zrd, 1862. 
“ Sir,—I have much pleasure in stating the results we have 
obtained by the utilisation of the sewage of the city of 
Carlisle during the last two years. As you are aware from 
Mr. Ellis’s report, the sewage waters are disinfected by our 
process before application to the land, which serves the 
double purpose of entirely preventing any offensive odours 
or nuisance, and of preserving the manurial value of the 
sewage from loss by decomposition and passage into the 
atmosphere in the form of vapour. The land to which we 
apply the sewage is 13 feet above the level of the main sewer, 
through which the sewage is carried from the city. We, 
therefore, have to pump it a height of 15 feet to give a fall 
for conducting over the land. This is effected by one of 
Gwynne’s pumps, worked by a steam-engine. The disinfected 
sewage is thus conducted over in the manner described in 
Mr. Ellis’s report. The results of its application have been 
very satisfactory. During the two years we have confined 
it to 80 acres of land, which it has greatly enriched, and is 
very much increased in value, so much so, that we are now 
making the necessary arrangements to carry the sewage over 
40 acres of land which we held in reserve. We expect that 
the 80 acres which have been irrigated will continue to give 
the same abundant crops. We have been enabled to feed a 
large number of sheep and cattle, and I am glad to say they 
thrive exceedingly well upon either the grass mown and 
taken to them, or grazing upon the land. We have reserved 
a portion of the irrigated land for mowing to sell cut grass, 
and we this year have been able to cut this for sale five times ! 
We have also made hay of the grass, and find the hay is of 
first-rate quality, and keeps as well in stack as any meadow 
hay. Commercially speaking, we are satisfied with the re¬ 
sult. Although it has in some sense been experimental, and 
