126 TO^VN SEWAGE, AND ITS 



under the watering system containing over 35 acres, and they 

 are let to graziers for pasture during the summer. The field 

 which was first subjected to water about the year 1770, now lets for 

 £8 an acre, and the other fields let from £5 to £7 per acre, accord 

 ing to the time the water has operated in improving the herbage." 



Milliken Estate. 



The only other example of the application of sewage to grass 

 to which we shall advert is at Milliken, in Eenfrewshire. The 

 water of a brook, as it leaves the adjacent village of Kilbarchan, 

 is conducted along the highest side of a 15 acre field, from which 

 it trickles over the sloping surface. It is flooded for about four 

 months in the year. The water is generally put on in January, 

 and not withdrawn till May, but the times are regulated accord- 

 ing to the weather and the state of the grass. When the 

 weather is dry and the water scarce, the ground is irrigated in 

 patches two weeks at a time, and damage from frost has to be 

 guarded against. It is mowed annually, and produces an 

 a.verage of about 3 J tons of hay per acre. The aftermath is 

 either cut or pastured with sheep or cattle. It is permanent 

 grass, which consists of rye-grass, timothy, fescue, and some 

 indigenous kinds. The village contains over 2000 people, but 

 as the drainage of the place has never been systematically 

 executed, the household excrements do not pass into the burn. 

 A larger breadth has been occasionally irrigated, but owing to 

 the defective outfall it is not persevered in. The original cost 

 of the undertaking was about £60, and the annual cost of 

 distributing the water evenly is about 5s. an acre. This 

 enterprise was carried out by Mr G-legg, the resident agent, and 

 it pays three times better than the adjacent tillage land. We 

 are not told the cost of introducing the water at Logic, but both 

 that and the Milliken undertaking are good and profitable 

 investments. Other places could bo named where the system is 

 confined to grass, and on ground not by any means the best, 

 where sewage irrigation has been a great success. 



We now propose giving the descriptive particulars of three 

 sewage farms, which are conducted on a system of mixed 

 husbandry, much the same as on an ordinary farm. It happens 

 that we inspected all the three in 1875, and again we looked 

 minutely over them last year (1882). We also mean to give 

 some account of the disposal of the sewage at Aylesbury, by the 

 A. B. C. process, — a plan which has received a good deal of 

 attention in past years. The first we shall refer to is — 



The Bedford Farm. 



This is the only farm of the four which stood in the com- 

 peting list for the prizes offered by the Eoyal Agricultural 



