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THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



THE LOCHEND SEWAGE IRRIGATION. 



BY CUTHBEEI W. JOITNSON, ESQ., F.E.S. 



It was during the months of August and Sep- 

 tember of this year that I had for the first time an 

 opportunity of visiting Scotland. The result of a 

 month's tour, chiefly amidst the magnificent scenery 

 of its Western Islands, leads me to warmly commend 

 a similar tour to the farmers of the southern por- 

 tion of our island. And it may be serviceable to 

 them if I give the outline of my route before I pro- 

 ceed to glance at certain great objects with regard 

 to the management of their grass lands, well 

 worthy of the careful consideration of the farmers 

 of warmer and drier districts. My course was 

 from London to Glasgow by the railway. Thence by 

 steamer to Rothesay in the Isle of Bute (there are 

 several daily boats that carry you the forty miles 

 down the noble Clyde for Is. 6d.). From Rothesay 

 by steamer, through the very lovely Kyles of Bute, 

 via the Crinan Canal to Oban, where there are ex- 

 cellent hotels. From Oban, by fine steamers, 

 round the iron-bound shores of the Isle of Mull 

 to lona and Staffa, back to Oban. Then to the 

 magnificent Vale of Glencoe and the Caledonian 

 Canal, whence I returned to Rothesay. From 

 Rothesay, up the Clyde, to Bowling, thence by rail 

 to Loch Lomond (by far the noblest lake of our 

 island), then by a lake steamer to Tarbert and 

 Inversnaid. By coach, some four miles, from the 

 pier at Inversnaid, to Loch Catrine; by steamer 

 along this beautiful little lake to the entrance of 

 The Trossachs. Through The Trossachs by coach 

 to Stirling, thence by steamer down the Forth to 

 Edinburgh. 



The English agriculturist, who leaves his warm 

 vale and his elegant home for the colder climate of 

 the North, may rest assured that he will find in 

 Scotland almost every home comfort, and out of 

 doors many things which it would be well if we 

 could successfully imitate in our own parishes. 

 There is in this great northern portion of our 

 island a general intelligence, the result of universal 

 education, fraught with the best results. Every 

 ploughboy, even, that I asked a question of, replied 

 in good language, with readiness and clearness : 

 there was no appearance of anything like ignorance, 

 and its natural child, destitution. I did not see a 

 single beggar during my month in Scotland, and 

 only two intoxicated persons, and they were both 

 in Glasgow. Turn where I would, in their cities 

 or on the mountain slopes of Scotland, there were 

 economy and good sense displayed. The counties 



through which I chiefly passed were not the best 

 distinguished for their agriculture, still their turnip 

 crops were almost always good, and, like their oat 

 crops, much superior to ours — in fact, their chief 

 corn crop is oats ; and in September of this year, 

 the larger portion of it, in Bute and the Western 

 Islands of Scotland, was only then turning yellow, 

 whilst a good deal was quite green, Tliere were a 

 few barley fields dotted here and there ; I noticed 

 one crop of barley even in lona ; and a little 

 wheat in the warmer nooks and sunniest inclines. 

 But pasturage is the great object throughout 

 almost all the districts through which I passed. 

 Even on the more arable farms, the common course 

 is a fallow, turnips, oats, grass seeds for two years ; 

 then oats, wheat or barley ; then a fallow. The 

 breeding of sheep and cattle is a chief object. 

 These are seen tenanting all the mountain sides of 

 the noble Western Islands and the lochs I passed 

 through ; almost all seemed of good breeds, and in 

 thriving condition. Of the management of these I 

 shall on another occasion enlarge; but in this 

 paper I propose to confine my remarks to the result 

 of my visit to a portion of the sewage-irrigated 

 meads of Edinburgh. I do so (although there is 

 much that I have to remark on other portions of 

 Scotch agriculture), since there is at length a pros- 

 pect of vast operations being undertaken for the 

 disposal of the sewage of London. At such a 

 pericd, every fact that bears upon the importance 

 of employing in the irrigation of grass the enor- 

 mous amount of the metropolitan sewage should 

 be strenuously urged upon its commissioners and 

 Her Majesty's Ministers. Now, the Edinburgh 

 meads appear to me to afford most valuable evi- 

 dence ; they prove what many persons feel inclined 

 to doubt; they dispel more than one myth con- 

 jured up by the timid, the ignorant, and the in- 

 dolent. 



I was for several reasons, then, very glad when 

 in Edinburgh (the queen of our northern cities) to 

 pay a visit to some of the celebrated water meads, 

 of which we have all heard so much. It was by 

 the kindness of Mr. Thomas Duncan, of the 

 Highland Society's oflfice (Mr. Maxwell was, un- 

 fortunately, absent from Edinburgh), and Mr. 

 Stevenson, of the North British Agriculturist office, 

 that I was directed to the farm at Lochend, be- 

 longing to the Earl of Moray, of which Mr. Taylor 

 is the manager for Mr. Scott, the tenant. 



