APPLICATION OF TOWN SEWAGE IN AGRICULTUEE. 181 



if allowed to run too long upon one place, the crop becomes too 

 heavy and lodges. The only obstacle is, that a constant and 

 sufficient quantity is not received, and in the dry spring months 

 of the year, when the greatest benefit would be got, the supply 

 is nearly dried up. The mode of application is a very simple 

 one : — As there is not a sufficient vohime of sewage to carry out 

 what is known as catch work, shallow ditches are cut out with 

 the spade here and there over the land, where they are seen to 

 be required ; the sewage is run in these ditches and spreads itself 

 over the land, its course being changed once a week ; the cost of 

 all this is very small, the work being done by a labourer on the 

 farm at odd times, but if a correct account was taken the outlay 

 would not exceed 5s. per acre. When the grass is cut early in 

 spring for the cattle, the sewage is run upon the land after being 

 cut; but when it is allowed to mature for hay, the sewage is kept 

 running through the crop till within two or three weeks of cut- 

 ting, when it is run off by a side ditch. 



The field was in green crop the previous year, and without 

 incurring any expense in preparing it for irrigation, the land 

 was sown down to grass with an oat crop, the grass mixture 

 including 16 lbs. of Timothy per acre. There were also sown 

 smaller quantities of the best natural grasses — the Fescues, the 

 Poas, Meadow Foxtail, and Crested Dogstail, from 1 to 3 lbs. of 

 each ; my usual practice being to include all these in my grass 

 mixture, along with Italian and perennial rye-grass. The Italian 

 dies out after the first year, the rye-grass after the second or 

 third year, their place being taken up by the slower growing 

 natural grasses, and a rich close sward formed. But for our 

 soil and climate, Timothy should form the larger part of any 

 grass mixture for a meadow, for irrigation, or for continuous 

 cutting. It is strong in the straw, does not lodge readily, and is 

 not easily injured by the weather. Horses and cattle are all 

 fond of it, and I have often observed the coats of the horses 

 turn glossy and sleek when fed upon it. To discard Italian and 

 perennial rye-grass from our grass mixtures, as some agriculturists 

 propose, would be a mistake which would soon rectify itself. 

 They are in their own time and place most valuable, but when 

 these alone, with the clovers, are sown, it is no wonder that the 

 land gets covered with fog. When, in a year or two, the rye- 

 grasses die out, and there are no natural grasses to take their 

 place, the fog speedily does so; then the land is said n<»t to 

 graze well, and has to be ploughed, and is sown over again with 

 the old rye-grass and clover mixture, to be followed as quickly 

 by the fog. No crop of the farm has hitherto received less 

 attention than the grasses, yet of all the crops it is the one 

 which is ca])able of yielding the most delight, and, when care, 

 and .^kill, and money, are judiciously spent upon it, it is of all 

 others the most profitable. 



