138 TOWN SEWAGE, AND ITS 



occurs in these years. Eecently we were pleased to notice a 

 paper on this subject by Mr J. A. Clarke, in which be refers to 

 artificial drying as practised by Mr Cbampian on the Eeading 

 sewage farm. The corporation has purchased one of Mr Gibb's 

 hay-driers at a cost of £350, and with this machine the heavy 

 crops of grass are converted into sound hay, which will keep for 

 any length of time. The hay is reported to be good, and the 

 process is as follows : — "When mowed, the swathe is in a brief 

 time turned, and after three or four days' exposure it is carted 

 out of the swathes into a pasture field. It is there put into 

 considerable cocks arranged close around the drying machine, in 

 which it gets warm, and parts with a considerable C[uantity of 

 moisture. It is then put through the hot-air machine at a quick 

 pace, as fast as a couple of men can pitch it, which finishes it in 

 a condition fit for ricks of the largest dimensions. 



The process is costly, inasmuch as the crop has to be removed 

 bodily from off the land on which it is grown, to make way for 

 the irrigation of the next cutting, and as pasture land has to be 

 provided for the process, it is more or less wasted, if occupied, 

 week after week for the four or five cuttings of the season. 

 Then again, the £350 for the hay-drier is a pretty costly invest- 

 ment for a small farm ; but if it makes the growing of Italian 

 rye-grass profitable it may well be adopted. Its cultivation is a 

 necessity, and as Mr Clarke puts it — what the cattle want, is of 

 all things dry provender, seeing that they must consume an 

 immense quantity of the watery grass fresh cut. Assuming that 

 20 acres are to be saved in that way, and that four cuttings 

 amount to 120 tons, being IJ ton of hay for each cutting, 

 estimated at £3 per ton, the aggregate value would be £18 per 

 acre. That looks like paying, if the costs are not too much. 

 The system of ensilaging might also be tested for preserving 

 sewage grass, although misgivings have been expressed in deal- 

 ing with materials so full of water. If it is successfully done 

 with ordinary meadow grass off the scythe, as is now demon- 

 strated, it surely can be successfully carried out with sewage 

 grass. It contains 70 to 75 per cent, of water, and the sewage 

 grass does not probably hold more than 85 to 90 per cent, of 

 moisture. 



In disposing of the sewage drainage of towns by irrigation, 

 there is indeed a great waste of fertilising material, yet it is 

 probably the least wasteful of any ; but the financial results are 

 unsatisfactory in almost every case. It may be that in some 

 such direction as we have indicated the excrementitious matters 

 of towns may be turned to more profitable account. The 

 sanitary question, however, is paramount and compulsory, and 

 dwarfs the agricultural as it would not and could not be 

 permitted to discharge the drainage into streams, which supply 



