44 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



than 300 or 400 yards from the irrigated meadow. A large 

 volume would be required to collect all the evidence in this 

 direction. 



Dr. Frankland, the prince of chemists, wrote in May, 1881 : 

 *' There are in nature powerful agents for the destruction of 

 disease. It cannot be doubted ; otherwise the human race 

 would long ago have been exterminated. The problem is 

 not entirely solved, but experience appears to demonstrate 

 this action on sewage employed in irrigation ; for when 

 known to be infected by cholera and typhoid fever in Eng- 

 land it has never produced these diseases in the inhabitants 

 living on the sewage forms and consuming the produce." 



A system endorsed and advocated by such men as Virchow 

 and Liebig, Pasteur, Schloessing and Marie-Davy, Frank- 

 land and Carpenter possesses a guarantee unquestionable. 



TRANSPORTATION. 



In constructing a sewerage system, the town or city pays 

 the costs of transportation ; for, of njpcessity, it must be 

 built to discharge somewhere, and ordinarily it would be no 

 more expensive to discharge on neighboring farms than into 

 a river or bay. Many places are obliged to elevate their 

 sewage with pumps before it is finally disposed of. It would 

 be just as cheap to pump it on the land. 



A commission appointed some time since by the Parisian 

 ofovernment stated that " irrio^ation is the most economic and 

 efficacious means of conveying directly to plants the fertil- 

 izino- matter of sewage." 



Delivered at a favorable point, no elaborate sj^stem is 

 necessary for its utilization. A cemented reservoir, with 

 Akron pipes which will sustain the pressure of two atmos- 

 pheres, and gates to govern and divert the flow to the open 

 ditches, is all that is necessary. Hose might be substituted 

 for the Akron pipe. On a light sandy soil, subsoil drains 

 for the eiiluent water are unnecessary. The sewage is best 

 carried in shallow ditches a few inches deep, and elevated 

 slightly above the level of the field. A plough will do the 

 entire construction, making what is known as the donkey- 

 back system, — elevated open ditches, having a fall of about 



