570 ANNUAL RECORD OF SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY. 



able agricultural commodity, is a nuisance which can only in 

 exceptional cases be turned to profitable account. It can- 

 not, therefore, be reasonably expected that the agriculturist 

 should have to pay the costs which the disposal of sewage 

 entails, and which ought to be defrayed by the rate-payers, 

 who enjoy the luxury and comfort of a system of water- 

 closets and thorough town-drainage." 



The Sewage of Paris. 



The sewage of Paris (which includes only part of the ref- 

 use of water-closets, that from many houses being taken to 

 cesspools and carted off), amounting to some 73,000,000 gal- 

 lons daily, is taken from the city sewers to Asniers, in the 

 suburbs, where about one third is now used for irrigation, 

 and the rest let into the Seine. The irrigation by this means 

 of some thousand acres on the peninsula of Gennevilliers is 

 the beginning of an attempt, thus far very successful, to pre- 

 vent the pollution of the river and utilize the material for 

 agriculture. The water is pumped up some twenty to thirty 

 feet, and carried, by gravity, over the land, the distribution 

 being accomplished by ditches. The water is completely 

 purified. Garden crops are raised of great size and the best 

 quality in the market. The rent of the lands supplied with 

 sewage has increased fourfold. The expense of the enter- 

 prise was borne by the city. Sanitarians and agriculturists 

 are alike gratified with the outcome. 



