UTILIZATION OF SEWAGE. 49 



care of a good amount. Stiff clay soils crack deep when 

 dried after a dose of liquid, and are, therefore, not useful 

 for iri'igation. 



The sandy wastes of the Great Salt Lake Desert, Califor- 

 nia and New Mexico, are to-day made fertile by irrigating 

 with fresh, pure water. The practical application of these 

 views, gentlemen, lies in the total and absolute abandonment 

 of that "relic of barbarism," the cesspool, to which may 

 be fairly charged a large proportion of the 10,000 cases of 

 typhoid fever occurring in this State each year. In its 

 place an open or covered sink drain, in which may be 

 poured the slops the family should discharge, without 

 stagnation, in the garden for the benefit of vegetation. The 

 foecal matter should be deposited in vaults with impervious 

 walls, into which should occasionally be thrown a shovelful 

 of loam or chip dirt, and emptied at least twice each year. 

 During the past summer a plot of ground about fifteen feet 

 square was sufficient to dispose of all the sink water of two 

 families with a lavish use of running water. On this land I 

 raised corn, onions, carrots, parsnips, and a little Italian 

 rye grass, as an experiment. The yield of all was much 

 larger than on adjacent land, and there was an entire absence 

 of etfiuvia. 



In towns the sewage systems should be constructed with 

 the final ol)ject of discharging on favorable soil, for the time 

 is fast approaching when this system must be adopted in 

 this country. The laws enacted last winter by our legisla- 

 ture will ultimately compel the withdrawal of sewage from 

 rivers and ponds, as the policy of the State appears against 

 the abandonment of natural water courses for sewerage pur- 

 poses. In the meantime the State could well afibrd to 

 demonstrate by experiment what crops are, in our climate, 

 best adapted to irrigation, and how abundantly the soil can be 

 dosed advantageously. With these questions settled there is 

 little doubt but plenty of land would be found in the State 

 to utilize all the sewage. There are in England to-day two 

 hundred cities and towns disposing of sewage by irrigation 

 and agriculture ; most of this work has been begun in the 

 past ten years, notwithstanding it costs on an average 

 £10,000 for an act of Parliament authorizino: such estab- 



