42 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



sewage from the fields, united in a petition asking for a 

 contract which should enable them to receive the sewage 

 for twelve years, and, when the paper was signed, erected a 

 monument to commemorate the event. 



The efficacy of this system of epuration is manifest, and 

 presents a brilliant proof. The efiiuent drain water has fewer 

 micro-orofanisms than the water of the Seine Avhen it enters 

 Paris. It has the purity of spring water coming from the 

 earth. To demonstrate the utility of the system as applied 

 to agriculture has been slow and difiicult, and not less labor- 

 ious than to test the efficacy of the epuration. 



The slowness of experiments in agriculture may be under- 

 stood when we remember that to reach an end we must go 

 through all the phases of vegetation, from the sowing of the 

 seed to the harvest. Under our climate it is a campaign of 

 a year. If we neo-lect a detail, if we make a mistake at the 

 time of sowing or planting, at the time of ploughing or water- 

 ing, the harvest may be a failure, and we must begin again. 

 The difficulty was increased by local circumstances. Amongst 

 the cultivators of land in the suburbs of Paris, no one knew 

 the practical working of a sewage farm. One of the persist- 

 ent workers who has been rewarded by success said recently 

 that it required more than four years to acquire the necessary 

 knowledge. To-day the cultivators are in complete posses- 

 sion of their art, and in the recent horticultural exhibition 

 every one admired the remarkable products, which received 

 honorable distinctions. 



In agriculture, successes which would be shown by beau- 

 tiful samples obtained in the fields of experiment would be 

 objects of curiosity. It is necessary to secure economical re- 

 sults, and these go far beyond the utmost expectations. For 

 the landlord of the soil the rent value of the hectare has in- 

 creased fivefold, from 90 to 450 francs. For the farmer or 

 cultivator the prosperity has not been less. The net value 

 of vegetable products rose from little or nothing to 4,000 

 francs per hectare. 



In a sanitary point of view the results have not been less 

 satisfactory, and here again it is necessar}'^ to observe the 

 facts on the ground. One sees a numerous population, ro- 



