The Country Gentlemafts Magazine 



SE WA GE IRRIGA TION A T BISHOFS ST OR TFORD. 



THE Times gives an account of a new 

 system of sewage irrigation which has 

 been adopted at Bishop's Stortford, a town of 

 6000 inhabitants, on the river Stort, a tribu- 

 tary of the Lea. As the Stort happens to be 

 a tributary of the Lea, out of which river the 

 East London Waterworks pump their supply, 

 says our contemporary, Bishop's Stortford in 

 due time came under injunction not to con- 

 taminate the drinking water of the metropoHs, 

 and had thus to divert the course of its 

 sewage in another direction, and to collect 

 the whole of its liquid waste and f cecal 

 matter at some spot where it might either be 

 purified before entering the only available 

 stream or be poured upon land, instead of 

 into water, and so utilized, as well as got rid 

 of. The burden of the change was' felt to be 

 all the more heavy from contrast with the 

 better fortune of Hertford ; for that town, 

 previous to the passing of the Act, had 

 bargained with the New River Company for 

 a handsome sum of money per annum to be 

 contributed by the company towards the cost 

 of withdrawing its sewage from one of the com- 

 pany's sources of supply. Stortford Local 

 Board decided to establish an irrigation 

 farm ; plans were prepared ; Messrs Lawson 

 & Manser were contracted with to carry out 

 the necessary works for ;^i 0,000 ; about 90 

 acres of land were required, situated far 

 enough outside the town and having a slop- 

 ing surface, so that the effluent water could 

 run into the Stort ; a main drain was laid 

 down, conveying the sewage to a suitable 

 point, where screening tanks and pumping 

 engines were erected ; a portion of the farm 

 was marked out and prepared with open 

 carriers and drains for flooding; and the 

 ground this year is bearing its first crops, 

 while the work of remodelling the drainage 

 of the town is in active progress and ap- 

 proaching completion. The principle acted 

 upon in draining the town is that of keeping 

 the rainfall and surface water separate from 



the sewage, the former being discharged into 

 the river. But, unfortunately, the sewage 

 outfall main having encountered a bed of 

 sand fed with springs by the higher lands 

 around, receives a large volume of this sub- 

 terranean water ; with the effect of greatly 

 diluting the sewage and increasing the 

 quantity which has to be raised by the pumps. 

 The 15-horse power horizontal engines; 

 are at work forcing the manurial liquid 

 up to the irrigation fields, the highest part of 

 the undulating ground exceeding, we believe, 

 an altitude of So feet above the level of the 

 outfall tanks. Fifteen acres of Italian rye- 

 grass show a luxuriant growth at the third 

 cutting, and two acres of turnips and kohl 

 rabi look promising. The prolific grass season 

 has not been favourable for marketing the 

 produce ; but in the first year of this sewage- 

 farming, which, indeed, is only partially car- 

 ried out at present, it is too soon to make 

 inquiries into outlay and returns. 



During the progress of these operations 

 Mr James Odams, of the Grange, Bishop's 

 Stortford, an active member of the Local 

 Board, has devoted much attention to tJii 

 whole question of the disposal of town 

 sewage, and, after personal inspection of the 

 working of many different systems, has ar- 

 ranged in connexion with the v/orks ju-' 

 described, a practical exposition of what h; 

 believes to be the most economical solution 

 of the sewage problem. 



From the simplicity of the apparatus em- 

 ployed, no less than from the novelty of the 

 process, and the advantages claimed for it, 

 this experiment should receive the attention 

 of all urban authorities, who are, of necessit}'. 

 interested in the subject. Taking the sewage 

 as delivered at the outfall, Mr Odams first 

 separates the solid and floating matters, and 

 then applies the partially clarified liquid to 

 the surface of land provided for the purpose. 

 Now, there are no capacious subsidence re- 

 servoirs in which the black mud may quietly 



