62 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



age. It cannot be a success as a commercial operation, ^o 

 experience indicates that the precipitation of this material 

 will give you any relief or any profit. It will only be (as 

 has been indicated by the paper), by such elForts as can be 

 made in the interior towns, in the smaller communities, on 

 the farm, in the little hamlet of a few houses, or in the larger 

 villao-e where this material can be taken > out and carried to 

 some of the side-hill farms, that you can get some benefit 

 and profit from it. But in large cities, where it must be 

 carried long distances — twenty or twenty-five miles — and 

 must be pumped to get an elevation of twenty feet, the 

 expense is so great that I do not believe there is any profit 

 in it whatever. There can be no utility in saving two cents 

 at a cost of five ; at least, there will be nothing gained to 

 agriculture. Sanitation is another matter. 



« 



Dr. Barnes. It is obligatory on the inhabitants of Ber- 

 lin and Edinburg to connect their water-closets and sewers 

 with the drainage sewers. In the case of those irrio^ated 

 farms, it is entirely voluntary on the part of the farmers of 

 Gennevilliers to take the sewage or not. They take it to 

 the extent indicated in the paper and use it with the results 

 stated. 



In relation to the farms in the vicinity of London, they 

 are situated upon a clay soil, chiefly. It is almost impossi- 

 ble to irrigate such territory, even with the most peifect 

 system of subsoil drainage ; it is impossible to get rid of 

 the Avater, and therefore very many grotesque, unprofitable 

 and ridiculous experiments could be cited, such as those of 

 the companies near London of which Col. Wilson has 

 spoken ; yet I think that the only instance in which sewage 

 has been used in this countrj'', at Pullman, and the numerous 

 instances where it has been used with success in Europe, 

 which appear not to be questioned, indicate that it would be 

 profitable here. I think the water itself on the farms in 

 Arlington, Belmont and Bedford would be of great benefit 

 to vegetation. 



One of the speakers claims, in consequence of a diflference 

 between the sewage of European and American cities, advan- 

 tages for utilization are possessed by the former which are 



