538 



THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



another Commission, witli such men as Piofcssor Wny 

 and Mr. Lawes on it. It is their report which is now 

 before us. Since their appointment they have visited 

 officially localities where sewage is applied 



TO LAND IN A LIQUID FORM : — Rugby, Wot- 



ford, Edinburgh, Rusholme, Mansfield, and Milan — 

 Localities where works for the purifica- 

 tion OF SEWAGH ARE IN OPERATION :—Croydon , 

 Leicester, Tottenham, and Cheltenham— And the 

 FARMS of Lord Essex, at Cashiobury; of Mr. Mechi, 

 at Tiptree; of Mr. Wheble, at Bulmersh Court; of 

 Mr. Kennedy, at Myer Mill; of Mr. Tclfer, at Gum- 

 ming Park ; of Lord Breadalbane, at Luing ; and of 

 Mr. Harvey, near Glasgow. The Commissioners very 

 properly decline any close comparison between the 

 application of the liquid manure of a farm and the 

 general use of town sewage fm- the same purpose. They 

 do not give any detail of the places they visited ; but 

 they find that sewage in its liquid state is profitably 

 applied to grass land in the neighbourhood of Edin- 

 burgh, as well as of Milan. It is gradually going out 

 of use for arable land ; while the formation of a 

 solid manure from it, at one time a very popular project, 

 it is shown, " will not be remunerative.'' The commis- 

 sioners thus cautiously sum up their experience. After 

 enumerating various difficulties, drawbacks, and ex- 

 penses, that we need not recapitulate here, they so de- 

 clare themselves : — " The Commission, however, be- 

 lieve that on the tvhole there can be no doubt that the 

 sewage of a town, in a liquid state, can be 7)iore 

 profitably disposed of by direct application to land than 

 by any other means, provided that, relatively to the 

 population producing it, the area to which it is applied 

 be small, that its use be limited to grass, that all 

 natural levels be taken advantage of, and that the 

 works be characterized by skill and AJuHcious eco- 

 nomy." This reads careful and honest. With skill, 

 economy, natural facilities, and good judgment, the 

 sewage of towns ?/ir<?/ be of service. Of course the Com- 

 missioners found endless mistakes and extravagance in 

 its application so far ; and on many of the sites that had 

 been spoken to as very models for our adoption. Had 

 the agriculturists of this country been only half as 

 ready to act on ill-considered advice as some people 

 were to give it, we dare scarcely contemplate the serious 

 loss that would have been the consequence. 



And yet there are some of their friends, even now, 

 that will tell them the same sort of thing. A week or 

 two since, the Society of Arts had a special meeting 

 to discuss this Report of the Royal Commissioners, and 

 for any one who chose to say anything he liked on so 

 attractive a subject. The Society has already made it- 

 self rather famous in this way. Neither Mr. Chadwick 

 nor his opponents were, unfortunately, or fortunately, 

 present ; but an M.P., — Mr. Lawrence Palk— was. The 

 honourable gentleman came, too, armed with the usual 

 kind of ammunition. He was from Devonshire, " where 

 the system of irrigation was by no means new." He 

 had been to Leicester, and " witnessed Mr. Wickstead's 

 plan of deodorization" ; and "he held in his hand a 

 letter from Mr. Campbell, of Rugby." One knows but 



too well what this all means, and how the honourable 

 gentleman must finish, as he did, in thiswise — 



" This was a question which was well worthy the at- 

 tention not only of gentlemen connected with large 

 towns, but also of those who, like himself, were con- 

 nected with the agricultural interests of the country. 

 If they looked to the increasing value of guano, and the 

 difficulty there was in obtaining it pure, he thought it 

 was important that science should be brought to bear, 

 in order to retain for the use of the agricultural dis- 

 tricts that which was the bane of large towns, but which 

 was of such extreme value to the farmer." 



Another substitute for guano — well worthy of the at- 

 tention of the agricultural interest — and of such immense 

 value to the farmer. Now, in plain sober English, what 

 does this really come to? Just this: that under cer- 

 tain circumstances, and with very good management 

 on his own part, the farmer may be able to employ the 

 sewage of towns to some advantage. Why can we not 

 be content with saying so much, instead of running 

 away with superlative expletives, and crying up 

 plans that have so far proved neither altogether 

 profitable nor practical? Mr. Lawrence Palk re- 

 presents an agricultural constituency, and if so be 

 he expects his supporters to act up to what he says, 

 the less he says about this matter the better. It is 

 such wild work on the part of those who undertake to 

 advocate the farmer that does so much mischief. One 

 would suppose, with the case of Mr. Palk and his 

 water-meadows before us, that we could not spend too 

 much of our time and means in arriving at the grand 

 consummation embodied in the use of town sewage. 



The Royal Commission is luckily composed of stouter 

 stuff. Few men understand the farmer and his wants 

 better than Professor Way and Mr. Lawes. They unite 

 in a report that treats the use of sewage for agricultural 

 purposes as but a matter of secondary consideration. 

 We have always been inclined so to regard it. Let the 

 towns get rid of their refuse as best they can, and let 

 the farmer use it w'len he can. With certain facilities 

 at occasional sites it may answer its end ; but lot no 

 plan go out of the way to assume that the use of sewage 

 is to be attended with "extreme value" one way or the 

 other. 



TO DESTROY WIRE WORM.— Procure a sufficient 

 quantity of nitrate of soda to allow 1| cwt. per acre ; have it 

 well broken on a hard floor, and sifted through a fine sieve, in 

 order that it may dissolve the quicker, spreading made equal 

 to the plants. It is advisable to bow it when tiie ground is 

 damp ; but it often happens that at this season such is not 

 the case, consequently it is advisable to use the hoe after 

 sowing the nitrate to admit it to the root of the oats, and to 

 sow iu the afternoon, taking the chance of a heavy dew. I 

 consider nitrate of soda the greatest fertilizer ever known, 

 also the quickest in its operation. I have seen it, when the 

 ground has been in a moist state, change the countenance of 

 the oats iu four days. In Cuthbert Johnson's " Encyclo- 

 paedia of Agriculture, &c ," in the treatise on the wireworm 

 he quotea a statement from a Mr. Tallant, who affirms that 

 he has frequently freed fields infested with wireworm by 

 sowing white mustari', — Charles Newman, Court Farm, 

 Reading. 



