Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER IV. USE AND APPLICATION OF SEWAGE OF TOWNS. [T might have been expected from the value of the refuse known as manure that the great demand for it would have afforded a price which might have returned, in some degree, the expense and charge of cleansing. But this appears not to be the case in the Metropolis. It was stated that, with the exception of coal ashes, which are indispensable for making bricks, some description of lees, and a few other inconsiderable exceptions, no refuse in London pays half the expense of removal by cartage. The cost of removal, or of the labour and cartage, limited the general use or deposit of the refuse within a radius which did not exceed three miles beyond the line of the district-post of the Metropolis, that is, about six miles. It was stated that partly from the nature of the holdings, and from other circumstances "within this limited district, agricultural improvements were not so good as might be expected where the facilities were so easy for obtaining any quantity of manure. Some idea may be formed of the loss of value of this manure from the Metropolis, occasioned by the expense of its collection and removal, from the evidence of a considerable contractor for scavengering, who said, with respectto the most productive manure, " I have given away thousands of loads of it; we knew not what to do with it." " In the parts of some towns adjacent to the rural districts the cesspools were emptied gratuitously for the sake of the manure, but only when there was a considerable accumulation, and any accumulation of any decomposing material which offended the smell. For the saving of cartage, as well as the convenience of use, accumulations of refuse were frequently allowed to remain, and decompose, and dry amidst the habitations of t...