358 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, December 13, 1859. 
HOUSE AND TOWN SEWAGE. 
(Concluded from 'page 142.) 
Analyses op Sewage. —Having shown the value and the 
abundance of this fertiliser by evidence which admits of no refu¬ 
tation, we will next detail the sustaining evidence afforded by 
Chemistry ; for we fully agree with the Royal Agricultural 
Society in the importance of combining “ Practice with Science.” 
Practice shows what is ; and Science shows that what is, ought 
to be. 
Mr. J. C. Nesbit, the distinguished master of the Agricultural 
and Scientific School at Ivennington, states, that by weighing the 
excretions of one person for some time it was found that the 
average weight of solid faces was about 8 ozs. avoirdupois daily, 
and of urine 3| lbs.; varying according to diet and state of the 
air. The annual amount will, therefore, be nearly 168 lbs. solid 
excrement, and 1232 lbs. of urine. Analyses showed their con¬ 
stituents were as follows :— 
Moisture . 
Nitrogen . 
Organic mutter . 
Inorganic matter 
Mr. Nesbit then states the comparative composition of equal 
quantities of dried mixed human excrements, rape cake and 
guano :— 
Rape Cake. 
Guano. 
Mixed Human 
Excrements. 
lbs. lbs. 
lbs. lbs. 
lbs. lbs. 
Moisture . 
— 195-8 
— 268-8 
— 269-0 
Nitrogen. 
— 115-4 
— 258-6 
— 322-0 
equal to ammonia. 
14C-0 — 
313-G — 
390-0 — 
Organic matter. 
— 1654.2 
— 938-6 
— 1293-0 
Inorganic matter . 
— 274-0 
— 774-0 
— 356-0 
containing phosphoric acid 
43-7 — 
224-0 — 
64-9 — 
2240-0 
2240-0 
2240-0 
Prom this it will be seen that the dried excrements are pre¬ 
ferable to the guano and rape cake as far as concerns the ammonia; 
and superior to the rape cake but inferior to the guano as respects 
the phosphoric acid. 
Dr. Daubeny, Professor of Agriculture at Oxford, from the 
analyses of Professor Way, sustains the conclusions of Mr. 
Nesbit, though differing in the relative amounts. Dr. Daubeny 
estimates the mixed excrements of a family of four as amounting 
in the year to 4745 lbs.; containing 30 lbs. of nitrogen, 10 lbs. 
of phosphoric acid, and 6 lbs. of potash. In these proportions, 
and considering that there are 650,000 families in London, then 
Dr. Daubenv calculates the annual value of their sewage is 
£635,150. 
The analyses by Professor Way, above referred to, are as 
follows :— 
Faeces. 
Urine, j 
lbs. 
lbs. 
1230 
1196-3 
3-3 
9-9 | 
37-0 
15-9 
4 7 
9-9 
168 0 
1232-0 
Organic matter and salts of am¬ 
monia. 
Insoluble siliceous matter . 
Oxide of iron . 
Lime . 
Magnesia. 
Phosphoric acid . 
Sulphuric acid. 
Potash .. 
Soda . 
Chloride of potassium . 
Chloride of sodium (common salt),. 
Urine. 
Fames. 
67-54 
83-52 
•90 
1-48 
*50 
•54 
•61 
1-72 
•47 
1-55 
4-66 
4-27 
•46 
•24 
1-83 
1-19 
— 
•31 
5-31 
— 
18-88 
•18 
Guano. 
52-01 
1-54 
1 24-12 
8-64 
We might accumulate many similar testimonies; but will only 
add that Professor Miller, of King’s College, in his parliamentary 
evidence relative to one Thames sewer only, said, “ The quantity 
of potash which passes out of this sewer per day averages about 
a ton weight; and about the same quantity of phosphates of lime 
and magnesia ; and of ammonia nearly two tons.” 
Deodorising. —A very erroneous opinion is entertained, that 
house sewage is so fetid and disgusting, that, unless deodorized, it 
could not be employed near a residence without its being an in¬ 
tolerable nuisance. Such opinion is founded upon the stenches 
incident to the emptying of the long-confined accumulations of 
dcad-wclls by the nightman ; but there are none such incidents to 
sewage-tanks, the contents of which are from week to week, and 
from day to day, removed on to the soil as its cultivation requires. 
The mouth of the pipe which delivers • the house-se'wage—of the 
employment of which we have the best knowledge—is over a 
common cinder-sieve of wire : this intercepts all solid bodies, but 
permanently retains only those which are insoluble. The sewage is 
raised as required by a lifting-pump from the tank, situated abotit 
100 yards from the house, and the wind must blow very strongly 
and directly towards the house before any smell of the sewage 
can be detected. For within five minutes after the sewage has 
been poured over the soil, you raaj stand upon that soil without 
the slightest smell of the sewage b’eing perceptible. The earths 
of which all soils are composed are of the number of the most 
powerful deodorisers. So much is this the fact, that we have 
known the sewage poured among Chrysanthemums in the bed 
of a conservatory opening into a dining-room and drawing-room, 
during the family’s absence, and on their return an hour after 
they could not detect that the sewage had been employed. 
Application op Sewage. —It should be applied to crops and 
plants whilst they arc growing; and we have already stated how 
it should be poured into gutters formed in the soil between the 
rows of kitchen-garden vegetables. 'To Roses and other orna¬ 
mental plants, a basin formed by a mound of earth in a circle 
about one foot from the stem is an equally efficient receptacle. 
To fruit trees a similarly encircling mound should be made three 
or four feet from the stem. 
To kitchen garden crops it may bo applied once or twice a- 
week, oftener in dry weather than in wet. To ornamental plants 
once a-week is quite often enough; and to fruit trees once a- 
month is sufficient. 
House sewage should comprise nothing but the drainage from 
the waterclosets, the kitchen-sink, and the chamber-slops. It 
may then be applied, without diluting with water, to the soil 
about the roots of all growing crops, plants, and trees, except to 
such as are growing in pots. About a pailful to six square yards 
is a good allowance to Cabbages, Asparagus-beds, and all such 
crops. To potted plants, one bucket of sewage to three buckets 
of water is a good proportion. It is far better to apply it weak 
and often than strong and seldom. 
In winter, w hen there are no growing crops requiring its ap¬ 
plication, wo pour the sewage over vacant plots in the kitchen 
garden; over the Asparagus, Sea-kale, and Rhubarb-beds ; and 
among the trees and shrubs in plantations and borders. 
If it be necessary at any time to have a store of it in a solid 
form, the process of making it so is very simple. Add a quarter 
of a pound of oil of vitriol (sulphuric acid) to every bucketful 
of sewage. The sewage should be from the waterciosets only. 
Mix the sewage so acidulated with as much of coal ashes, or of 
dry earth, as will soak it well up and yet be handable without 
wetting the hand. Mix a quarter of a peck of superphosphate of 
lime with each bushel of the sewaged ashes, or sewaged earth, 
and you will then have as powerful a manure as almost any of 
those advertised as artificial manures. Keep it in a dry shed, 
and put it in the drills with the seed, or to plants in a circle 
! round each, and cover with an inch of the soil. 
Conclusion. —The employment of house-sewage ae a fertiliser 
is a very ancient practice. Columella, writing eighteen hundred 
years ago, gives full directions for its employment, especially 
1 recommending it to be applied to Vines and other fruit trees, 
j The workmen, he says, should collect and preserve, not only 
what they make themselves, “ but also that which is daily pro¬ 
duced in the yard and house.”— {Columella, ii. xv.) 
The practice is no less general than ancient; for in France, 
Flanders, China, and elsewhere the sewage is depended upon as 
the best sustainer of the soil’s fertility. Indeed, but for the 
scrupulous preservation and employment of every household’s 
sewage in China, its soil could not sustain its dense population. 
Let no ridicule, no irrational prejudice, deter any one of our 
readers from employing this cheapest and best of fertilisers. It 
is difficult, we know, to refute a sneer; but a sneer never refuted 
a truth—much less should it turn any one from reflecting and 
acting upon a truth of such national importance as that we com¬ 
menced and will conclude by enunciating :— 
The sewage oe every household is manure sufficient 
FOR THE PRODUCTION OF ALL THE VEGETABLE FOOD IT CON¬ 
SUMES.— J. 
