278 BOAED OP AGRicuLTUEE. [Jan., 



had four grains of solid matter to the gallon. The water 

 from the sewers, which was rank, which had a foul smell, and 

 which was disgusting to the sight, did not contain over forty 

 grains of solid matter to the gallon. Yet the one was good 

 drinking water and the other was positively filthy. But you 

 see that in a gallon of this sewage you get only about ten 

 times as much solid matter as you do in the water as it comes 

 from the delivery pipe in the city. 



Prof. Brewer. Let me add a word here. I think it has 

 been proved conclusively in the old world, that where the 

 storm-water and sewage are carried by the same sewers, that 

 material cannot be handled for agricultural purposes ; but 

 where the sewage proper is carried off in one way, and the 

 storm-water is all carried off in another way, by what is 

 known as the separate system, (of which the system adopted 

 at Memphis is an illustration,) that makes a very different 

 matter. In our climate, more water runs off from the soil 

 than sinks in. Now, if we take into account that more than 

 half the rain fall, coming intermittently as it does, goes out 

 with the sewage, you see that the aggregate sewage is enor- 

 mously diluted. It was found in London that the average 

 was literally purer than some of the water of the wells that 

 was used ; that the ground had become so befouled that the 

 water that got into the wells absolutely contained more organic 

 matter, by chemical analysis, than the average sewage of 

 the city. 



Mr. Wetherell. I would like to ask Prof. Brewer one 

 other question : What are these corporations going to do with 

 this filth that is incident to their places, in view of the diffi- 

 culty of handling it ? 



Prof. Brewer. That is a problem for them to settle and 

 not for me. If my neighbor creates a nuisance on my 

 premises, I tell him to get rid of it. It is his business to get 

 rid of it and not my business to solve that problem for him. 



Mr. John S. Kirkham. I want to ask Mr. Webb if there 

 are any fish in those ponds ? 



