APPLICATION TO AGPJCULTUKE. 125 



carrjinc:^ away the sewage by water, and the cost of removing 

 the excrement and other solid matter before the new system 

 was introduced, amounted to a considerable sum per annum. 

 The examples of sewage farms, which we give in the following 

 pages, will best show the financial position of this comparatively 

 new enterprise in the country. 



Grass farms pay sewage irrigation in not a few cases, and 

 the Edinburgh meadows have been often quoted as an instance 

 of success. It is probably from this example, which has been 

 long before the public, that extravagant opinions of the value of 

 sewage have arisen. Before noticing two instances of profitable 

 grass irrigation by sewage, it may not be considered out of place 

 to refer to the " dry earth system " of dealing with the voidances 

 of towns and households. It was brought before the public a 

 number of years ago by the late respected Eector of Fordington, 

 and its merits have been fairly and fully tested. The principle 

 is as old as the wilderness journey of the ancient Jews, and it is 

 practised still in several Mahommedan countries. It also claims 

 to fulfil all the sanitary, commercial, and agricultural require- 

 ments. It is also claimed for it by the late Eev. ^Ir Moule, that 

 it can be applied to three-fourths of the people of the United 

 Kingdom, at one-third of the cost of the liquid system. The 

 public have practically only accepted these views to a very 

 limited extent, for, unless in isolated households and large 

 institutions, the plan has not been adopted. It has been 

 estimated that one ton of dry earth would suffice for each 

 individual for a year, and it is applied and used in closets, very 

 much in the same way as the water, but the mere delivery and 

 removal of the required earth in a town would be a formidable 

 undertaking. In villages, hamlets, and private dwellings no 

 such difficulty exists. 



The Logic Seivage Mcadou\ 



In perusing the capital agricultural report of Forfarshire 

 which was drawn up for the Board of Agriculture, and published 

 in 1813, we found a brief report of sewage irrigation, of which 

 the following is an abstract : — " Colonel Kinloch has long 

 practised watering on his estate of Logiu, in the lower part of 

 Kirriemuir parish. He uses the water of a ri^ ulet which rises 

 in the marl loch of Kinnordy, and receives much filth from the 

 town of Kirriemuir, and from phish mills in its progress. The 

 land is laid np into broad and high riilges, and the water is 

 conducted in a main drain along the highest side of the fiehl. 

 It is let out of the main and passes down ruts along the summit 

 of each ridge, from which it trickles down the sides into th*' 

 fnrrows. 'J'he sewage is let on in November, and is continue 1 

 till the middle of April. The Colonel has now three enclosures 



