AGRICULTURAL CHEMISTRY AND GEOLOGY. 137 



means all the solid and liquid excrements of the farm animals mixed with water,) it soaks 

 deeply into the subsoil to the depth of the drains, which I have seen, on the very strongest 

 clays, discharging the liquefied manure at a depth of four and five feet. Here, then, is the 

 secret of my great crops on a miserable soil. The manure vitalizes, warms, and chemically 

 changes the miserable subsoil; the roots of the growing crops know this, and send down 

 their fibres or mouths to appropriate and elaborate the subterranean treasures now for the 

 first time placed at their disposal in an available condition. I could show you twenty loads 

 of rich oil-cake bullock pudding, or manure ; I would mix it with water, apply it in a shower, 

 and you should search the surface in vain for any proof of its whereabout. It has gone down 

 to do its work. I will not drag you through all the details of the modus operandi of this 

 method of manuring ; you may see it all any day you choose on my farm, or on any of those 

 of others who are practising the same process. What I want you to believe is, that town- 

 sewage is liquid guano, applicable to every soil and every crop, and worthy of your utmost 

 attention. It is true that undrained land, requiring drainage, such as heavy clays and spring 

 soil, must undergo that operation before they can derive the benefit of such an application ; 

 but there are extensive tracts of chalks, sands, and hot gravels, almost praying to be fertil- 

 ized by the sewage of our towns. 



Although I apply my liquefied manure on the surface, I am quite convinced that, during 

 the summer season and among the growing crops, it would be far more advantageous to apply 

 it subterraneously, as effected by Mr. Wilkins. By this means, the openness and tillage of 

 the surface is undisturbed ; the rays of heat and light are employed in warming the earth, 

 and evaporating from the leaves the subterranean supply of fluids which the plants absorb by 

 their roots, and which arise to them by capillarity. The question is a large one, involving 

 considerations of cost ; but most certainly production is vastly increased and stimulated by 

 the new method. 



One important reason for the superiority of liquefied over solid manures, is, that water is 

 the great arrester and conveyance of ammonia — that invisible and truant spirit which is ever 

 escaping unseen from reeking dung-heaps. It is this ammonia which dissolves the silica 

 of the soil, and makes the kernel of our wheat and the lean of our flesh ; and it is for this 

 ammonia that we so affectionately prize unwashed Peruvian guano or birds' dung. When 

 you have learned to apply fluid manure to the soil, you will find your crops yield as much 

 as they do after the sheepfold, and you will get corn as well as straw ; that is, if you do not 

 sow too much seed. 



You must give up all hopes of obtaining town-sewage in a solid form, for Professor Way's 

 paper, (which every agriculturist should read,) in the Royal Agricultural Society's Journal, 

 and other evidences, are conclusive on that point. 



Now, in railroad undertakings we find landed proprietors and other interested parties join- 

 ing with town capitalists, and affording them every inducement and opportunity to open up 

 a country with general benefit. Let the same be done with sewage. Depend upon it, 

 without this co-operation no town capitalists will be so miscalculating as to place their capital 

 at the mercy of local prejudice or neglect. It therefore remains with agriculture itself to 

 determine whether this interesting question shall receive its proper solution. But supposing 

 that the new company has laid down its main line of pipes for the country distribution, where 

 will you find the £3 per acre for the network of iron pipes, &c. requisite on every farm ? 

 It appears to me that, where the capital is required, it may be readily obtained from the 

 Lands Improvement Company or Land Drainage Company, and that the annual charge which 

 would liquidate principal and interest in a few years would leave a large margin of advantage 

 for both landlord and tenant. To those who desire to see the mode of applying town-sewage 

 may be quoted the instance of G. H. Walker, Esq., who takes the town of Rugby, &c. ; W. 

 Worsley, Esq., near Manchester, who uses the sewage of a neighboring district. In both these 

 cases steam-power is applied. 



Of course, if the London sewage is used, I apprehend it would be pumped to elevated dis- 

 trict reservoirs, whence it would flow from main pipes connected with smaller ones on the 

 various farms, so that they would be always charged with a sufficient pressure to cause a jet; 

 this would render unnecessary any steam-engine or tank on the farm. A register of quantity, 



